s that are hunted, nor did they often dare to return by
night to the shelter of yesterday. They ate but the flesh of wild
animals. Their faces sank and grew white, their clothes ragged; for
the briars tore them. They loved each other and they did not know that
they suffered.

One day, as they were wandering in these high woods that had never yet
been felled or ordered, they came upon the hermitage of Ogrin.

The old man limped in the sunlight under a light growth of maples near
his chapel: he leant upon his crutch, and cried:

"Lord Tristan, hear the great oath which the Cornish men have sworn.
The King has published a ban in every parish: Whosoever may seize you
shall receive a hundred marks of gold for his guerdon, and all the
barons have sworn to give you up alive or dead. Do penance, Tristan!
God pardons the sinner who turns to repentance."

"And of what should I repent, Ogrin, my lord? Or of what crime? You
that sit in judgment upon us here, do you know what cup it was we
drank upon the high sea? That good, great draught inebriates us both.
I would rather beg my life long and live of roots and herbs with
Iseult than, lacking her, be king of a wide kingdom."

"God aid you, Lord Tristan; for you have lost both this world and the
next. A man that is traitor to his lord is worthy to be torn by horses
and burnt upon the faggot, and wherever his ashes fall no grass shall
grow and all tillage is waste, and the trees and the green things die.
Lord Tristan, give back the Queen to the man who espoused her lawfully
according to the laws of Rome."

"He gave her to his lepers. From these lepers I myself conquered her
with my own hand; and henceforth she is altogether mine. She cannot
pass from me nor I from her."

Ogrin sat down; but at his feet Iseult, her head upon the knees of
that man of God, wept silently. The hermit told her and re-told her
the words of his holy book, but still while she wept she shook her
head, and refused the faith he offered.

"Ah me," said Ogrin then, "what comfort can one give the dead? Do
penance, Tristan, for a man who lives in sin without repenting is a
man quite dead."

"Oh no," said Tristan, "I live and I do no penance. We will go back
into the high wood which comforts and wards us all round about. Come
with me, Iseult, my friend."

Iseult rose up; they held each other's hands. They passed into the
high grass and the underwood: the trees hid them with their branches.
They disappeare