r made sure that he had to do with a fool and said:

"Good morrow, fool, where have you been this long while?"

And he answered:

"At the Abbot of St. Michael's wedding, and he wed an abbess, large
and veiled. And from the Alps to Mount St. Michael how they came, the
priests and abbots, monks and regulars, all dancing on the green with
croziers and with staves under the high trees' shade. But I left them
all to come hither, for I serve at the King's board to-day."

Then the porter said:

"Come in, lord fool; the Hairy Urgan's son, I know, and like your
father."

And when he was within the courts the serving men ran after him and
cried:

"The fool! the fool!"

But he made play with them though they cast stones and struck him as
they laughed, and in the midst of laughter and their cries, as the
rout followed him, he came to that hall where, at the Queen's side,
King Mark sat under his canopy.

And as he neared the door with his club at his neck, the King said:

"Here is a merry fellow, let him in."

And they brought him in, his club at his neck. And the King said:

"Friend, well come; what seek you here?"

"Iseult," said he, "whom I love so well; I bring my sister with me,
Brunehild, the beautiful. Come, take her, you are weary of the Queen.
Take you my sister and give me here Iseult, and I will hold her and
serve you for her love."

The King said laughing:

"Fool, if I gave you the Queen, where would you take her, pray?"

"Oh! very high," he said, "between the clouds and heaven, into a fair
chamber glazed. The beams of the sun shine through it, yet the winds
do not trouble it at all. There would I bear the Queen into that
crystal chamber of mine all compact of roses and the morning."

The King and his barons laughed and said:

"Here is a good fool at no loss for words."

But the fool as he sat at their feet gazed at Iseult most fixedly.

"Friend," said King Mark, "what warrant have you that the Queen would
heed so foul a fool as you?"

"O! Sire," he answered gravely, "many deeds have I done for her, and
my madness is from her alone."

"What is your name?" they said, and laughed.

"Tristan," said he, "that loved the Queen so well, and still till
death will love her."

But at the name the Queen angered and weakened together, and said:
"Get hence for an evil fool!"

But the fool, marking her anger, went on:

"Queen Iseult, do you mind the day, when, poisoned by the Morholt's
spear, I took