, said
Tristram, I come from King Meliodas that wedded your sister, and a
gentleman wit ye well I am. King Mark beheld Sir Tristram and saw that
he was but a young man of age, but he was passingly well made and big.
Fair sir, said the king, what is your name, and where were ye born? Sir,
said he again, my name is Tristram, and in the country of Liones was I
born. Ye say well, said the king; and if ye will do this battle I shall
make you knight. Therefore I come to you, said Sir Tristram, and for
none other cause. But then King Mark made him knight. And therewithal,
anon as he had made him knight, he sent a messenger unto Sir Marhaus
with letters that said that he had found a young knight ready for to
take the battle to the uttermost. It may well be, said Sir Marhaus; but
tell King Mark I will not fight with no knight but he be of blood royal,
that is to say, other king's son, other queen's son, born of a prince or
princess.

When King Mark understood that, he sent for Sir Tristram de Liones and
told him what was the answer of Sir Marhaus. Then said Sir Tristram:
Sithen that he saith so, let him wit that I am come of father side and
mother side of as noble blood as he is: for, sir, now shall ye know that
I am King Meliodas' son, born of your own sister, Dame Elizabeth, that
died in the forest in the birth of me. O Jesu, said King Mark, ye are
welcome fair nephew to me. Then in all the haste the king let horse Sir
Tristram, and armed him in the best manner that might be had or gotten
for gold or silver. And then King Mark sent unto Sir Marhaus, and did
him to wit that a better born man than he was himself should fight with
him, and his name is Sir Tristram de Liones, gotten of King Meliodas,
and born of King Mark's sister. Then was Sir Marhaus glad and blithe
that he should fight with such a gentleman. And so by the assent of King
Mark and of Sir Marhaus they let ordain that they should fight within
an island nigh Sir Marhaus' ships; and so was Sir Tristram put into a
vessel both his horse and he, and all that to him longed both for his
body and for his horse. Sir Tristram lacked nothing. And when King Mark
and his barons of Cornwall beheld how young Sir Tristram departed with
such a carriage to fight for the right of Cornwall, there was neither
man nor woman of worship but they wept to see and understand so young a
knight to jeopardy himself for their right.

CHAPTER VI. How Sir Tristram arrived into the Island for