the castle of the Lady Loise, where he had once stayed at the time
that he undertook the adventure against Sir Nabon as aforetold. There,
being exhausted with hunger and weariness, he laid himself down in the
sunlight out beyond the borders of the forest and presently fell into a
deep sleep that was like to a swoon.

Now it chanced at that time that there came that way a certain damsel
attendant upon the Lady Loise. She perceiving that a man lay there on the
grass at the edge of the forest was at first of a mind to quit that place.
Then, seeing that the man lay very strangely still as though he were dead,
she went forward very softly and looked into his face.

Now that damsel had beheld Sir Tristram a great many times when he was at
the castle of the Lady Loise; wherefore now, in spite of his being so
starved and shrunken, and so unkempt and unshaved, she remembered his face
and she knew that this was Sir Tristram.

Therewith the damsel hurried away to the Lady Loise (and the lady was not a
very great distance away) and she said: "Lady, yonder way there lieth a man
by the forest side and I believe that it is Sir Tristram of Lyonesse. Yet
he is but half-clad and in great distress of body so that I know not of a
surety whether it is really Sir Tristram or not. Now I pray you come with
me and look upon his face and see if you may know him."

So the Lady Loise went with the damsel to where Sir Tristram lay and looked
into his face, and she knew Sir Tristram in spite of his ill condition.

[Sidenote: The Lady Loise finds Sir Tristram] Then the Lady Loise touched
Sir Tristram upon the shoulder and shook him, and thereupon Sir Tristram
awoke and sat up. Then the Lady Loise said, "Sir Tristram, is it thou who
liest here?" And Sir Tristram said, "I know not who I am." The Lady Loise
said, "Messire, how came you here in this sad case?" And Sir Tristram said:
"I know not whence I came, nor how I came hither, nor who I am, nor what it
is that ails me, for I cannot hold my mind with enough steadiness to
remember those things." Then the lady sighed for sorrow of Sir Tristram,
and she said: "Alas, Sir Tristram, that I should find you thus! Now I pray
you, lord, for to come with me to my castle which is hard by. There we may
care for you and may perhaps bring you back to health again."

To this Sir Tristram said: "Lady, I may not go with you. For though I
cannot remember whence I came, nor who I am, this much I know--I know that
I