ght-errant who sings, but an angel from
Paradise who hath come among us. For surely no one save an angel from
Paradise could sing so enchantingly."

So passed that evening very pleasantly until the hours waxed late. Then Sir
Tristram retired to a very noble apartment where a soft couch spread with
flame-colored linen had been prepared for him, and where he slept a soft
sleep without disturbance of any kind.

[Sidenote: Sir Tristram departs for the island of Sir Nabon] Now when the
next morning had come, Sir Tristram armed himself and mounted upon his
war-horse, and rode him to a certain place on the shore. There he found
some mariners in haven with a large boat, and to these he paid ten pieces
of silver money to bear him across the sea to that island where Sir Nabon
le Noir abided. At first these mariners said they would not sail to such a
coast of danger and death; but afterward they said they would, and they did
do so. But still they would not bring Sir Tristram to land nigh to the
castle, but only at a place that was a great way off, and where they deemed
themselves to be more safe from the cruel lord of that land.

As for Sir Tristram he made merry with their fear, saying: "It is well that
we who are knights-errant have more courage than you who are sailor-men,
else it would not be possible that monsters such as this Sir Nabon should
ever be made an end of."

Upon this the captain of these sailors replied: "Well, Messire, for the
matter of that, it is true that mariners such as we have not much courage,
for we are the first of our order who have dared to come hither. But it is
also true that you are the first errant-knight who hath ever had courage to
come hither. So what say you for the courage of your own order?" And at
that Sir Tristram laughed with great good will and rode his way.

[Sidenote: Sir Tristram arrives at the castle of Sir Nabon] Thereafter he
rode forward along the coast of that land for several leagues, with the
noise of the sea ever beating in his ears, and the shrill clamor of the
sea-fowl ever sounding in the air about him. By and by he came to a place
of certain high fells, and therefrom perceived before him in the distance a
tall and forbidding castle standing upon a high headland of the coast. And
the castle was built of stone, that was like the rocks upon which it stood,
so that at first one could not tell whether what one beheld was a part of
the cliffs or whether it was the habitation o