all that might have been, until her
heart was near to breaking.

Meanwhile, Sir Tristram arrived in Wales and met the monster Urgan, a
huge, hideous creature with no notion of fighting, or chivalry, for the
moment he beheld Sir Tristram, he rushed upon him, and would have dashed
him to the ground, but that Sir Tristram by good hap saw what was coming,
and swerved aside so that the blow fell harmless. And while the giant
roared with rage and mortification, and tried to recover his balance,
Sir Tristram swiftly drew his sword, and swinging it lightly round his
head, cut the monster's right hand clean off at the wrist with one sharp
stroke.

Maddened by the pain, Urgan fumbled with his left hand until he drew from
his belt a short steel dagger which had been tempered with sorcery, and
springing on Sir Tristram they closed together, and long and fiercely they
fought until the cliffs trembled with the struggle, and the ground was
sodden with blood.

Great ado had Sir Tristram to avoid the huge bulk of the giant, and
greater and greater grew the strain upon his strength, until a blow from
him sent the giant rolling over in the gory mud. He was soon on his feet
again, but the moment had given Sir Tristram time to get his breath.
Then they closed again, and the blows fell faster and more furiously than
ever. The giant's groans of rage and excitement might have been heard for
miles around, while the earth flew about them until they could scarce be
seen. Between every joint of their corslets the blood ran down in
streams, but the sight only infuriated them the more.

At last, with a fierce roar between bitter laughter and pain, Urgan smote
Sir Tristram with such fury that he cracked his shield in half, and then
before Sir Tristram could recover himself he smote him again so that he
would have killed him had not the blow by great good chance turned aside.
But, turning aside as it did, it gave Sir Tristram the chance he coveted,
and rushing in on the giant before he had recovered his foothold, he smote
him with such force and skill that he cleft him clean through; and in his
agony Urgan leapt so high in the air that he fell back over the edge of
the cliff, and dropped heavily into the sea.

His task accomplished, Sir Tristram got into his ship again and sailed
away, and as he passed Tintagel, where his unhappy love lay a prisoner in
the castle, his heart felt like to break; and his yearning for her was so
great, it seemed