ck Tristan's
horse just where the breast-piece runs, and laid it on the field.

But Tristan, standing, drew his sword, his burnished sword, and said:

"Coward! Here is death ready for the man that strikes the horse before
the rider."

But Riol answered:

"I think you have lied, my lord!"

And he charged him.

And as he passed, Tristan let fall his sword so heavily upon his helm
that he carried away the crest and the nasal, but the sword slipped on
the mailed shoulder, and glanced on the horse, and killed it, so that
of force Duke Riol must slip the stirrup and leap and feel the ground.
Then Riol too was on his feet, and they both fought hard in their
broken mail, their 'scutcheons torn and their helmets loosened and
lashing with their dented swords, till Tristan struck Riol just where
the helmet buckles, and it yielded and the blow was struck so hard
that the baron fell on hands and knees; but when he had risen again,
Tristan struck him down once more with a blow that split the helm, and
it split the headpiece too, and touched the skull; then Riol cried
mercy and begged his life, and Tristan took his sword.

So he promised to enter Duke Hoel's keep and to swear homage again,
and to restore what he had wasted; and by his order the battle ceased,
and his host went off discomfited.

Now when the victors were returned Kaherdin said to his father:

"Sire, keep you Tristan. There is no better knight, and your land has
need of such courage."

So when the Duke had taken counsel with his barons, he said to Tristan

"Friend, I owe you my land, but I shall be quit with you if you will
take my daughter, Iseult of the White Hands, who comes of kings and of
queens, and of dukes before them in blood."

And Tristan answered:

"I will take her, Sire."

So the day was fixed, and the Duke came with his friends and Tristan
with his, and before all, at the gate of the minster, Tristan wed
Iseult of the White Hands, according to the Church's law.

But that same night, as Tristan's valets undressed him, it happened
that in drawing his arm from the sleeve they drew off and let fall
from his finger the ring of green jasper, the ring of Iseult the Fair.
It sounded on the stones, and Tristan looked and saw it. Then his
heart awoke and he knew that he had done wrong. For he remembered the
day when Iseult the Fair had given him the ring. It was in that forest
where, for his sake, she had led the hard life with him, and that
nigh