asped her hands together and cried out: "Yea, yea, my
heart hath often asked me that question, but I would not answer it." King
Arthur said: "Neither shalt thou answer me, for I am but a weak and erring
man as thou art a woman. But answer thou that question to God, dear lady,
and then thou shalt answer it in truth."

Therewith King Arthur fell to talking of other things with Sir Tristram,
but the lady could not join them in talk, but sat thenceforth in silence,
finding it hard to breathe because of the oppression of tears that lay upon
her bosom.

And Belle Isoult said no more concerning that question that King Arthur had
asked. But three days after that time she came to Sir Tristram and said:
"Dear lord, I have bethought me much of what King Arthur said, and this
hath come of it, that I must return again unto Cornwall."

Then Sir Tristram turned away his face so that she might not see it, and he
said, "Methought it would come to that." And then in a little he went away
from that place, leaving her standing there.

So it came about that peace was made betwixt Sir Tristram and King Mark,
and Belle Isoult and King Mark, and King Arthur was the peacemaker.

[Sidenote: Belle Isoult scorns King Mark] Thereafter Sir Tristram and his
court and the Lady Belle Isoult returned unto Cornwall, and there they
dwelt for some time in seeming peace. But in that time the Lady Belle
Isoult would never see King Mark nor exchange a word with him, but lived
entirely apart from him and in her own life in a part of the castle; and at
that King Mark was struck with such bitterness of despair that he was like
to a demon in torment. For he saw, as it were, a treasure very near and yet
afar, for he could not come unto it. And the more he suffered that torment,
the more he hated Sir Tristram, for in his suffering it appeared to him
that Sir Tristram was the cause of that suffering.

So it came about that King Mark set spies to watch Sir Tristram, for in his
evil heart he suspected Sir Tristram of treason, and he hoped that his
spies might discover Sir Tristram in some act for which he might be
punished. So those spies watched Sir Tristram both night and day, but they
could find nothing that he did that was amiss.

Now one day Belle Isoult felt such a longing for Sir Tristram that she
could not refrain from sending a note to him beseeching him for to come to
her so that they might see one another again; and though Sir Tristram
misdoubted what