ying: "Fair youth, who are you, and whence come you,
and what is it you would have of me?"

[Sidenote: Tristram offers himself as champion for Cornwall] "Lord," said
Tristram, "my name is Tristram, and I come from the country of Lyonesse,
where your own sister was one time Queen. Touching the purpose of my coming
hither, it is this: having heard that you are in need of a champion to
contend for your rights against the champion of Ireland, I come hither to
say that if you will make me a knight with your own hand, I will take it
upon me to stand your champion and to meet Sir Marhaus of Ireland upon your
behalf."

Then King Mark was filled with wonder at the courage of Tristram, and he
said: "Fair youth, are you not aware that Sir Marhaus of Ireland is a
knight well set in years and of such great and accredited deeds of arms
that it is supposed that, excepting Sir Launcelot of the Lake, there is not
his peer in any court of chivalry in all of the world? How then can you,
who are altogether new to the use of arms, hope to stand against so
renowned a champion as he?"

"Lord," quoth Tristram, "I am well aware of what sort of knight Sir Marhaus
is, and I am very well aware of the great danger of this undertaking. Yet
if one who covets knighthood shall fear to face a danger, what virtue would
there then be in the chivalry of knighthood? So, Messire, I put my trust in
God, His mercies, and I have great hope that He will lend me both courage
and strength in my time of need."

Then King Mark began to take great joy, for he said to himself: "Maybe this
youth shall indeed bring me forth in safety out of these dangers that
menace my honor." So he said: "Tristram, I do believe that you will stand a
very excellent chance of success in this undertaking, wherefore it shall be
as you desire; I will make you a knight, and besides that I will fit you
with armor and accoutrements in all ways becoming to the estate of a
knight-royal. Likewise I will provide you a Flemish horse of the best
strain, so that you shall be both furnished and horsed as well as any
knight in the world hath ever been."

[Sidenote: Tristram is made knight-royal] So that night Tristram watched
his armor in the chapel of the castle, and the next day he was made knight
with all the circumstances appertaining to a ceremony of such solemnity as
that. And upon the afternoon of the day upon which he was thus made knight,
King Mark purveyed a ship in all ways befitting the