hade of the great trees wrapt them round, and as the King
followed the spy he felt his sword, and trusted it for the great blows
it had struck of old; and surely had Tristan wakened, one of the two
had stayed there dead. Then the woodman said:

"King, we are near."

He held the stirrup, and tied the rein to a green apple-tree, and saw
in a sunlit glade the hut with its flowers and leaves. Then the King
cast his cloak with its fine buckle of gold and drew his sword from
its sheath and said again in his heart that they or he should die. And
he signed to the woodman to be gone.

He came alone into the hut, sword bare, and watched them as they lay:
but he saw that they were apart, and he wondered because between them
was the naked blade.

Then he said to himself: "My God, I may not kill them. For all the
time they have lived together in this wood, these two lovers, yet is
the sword here between them, and throughout Christendom men know that
sign. Therefore I will not slay, for that would be treason and wrong,
but I will do so that when they wake they may know that I found them
here, asleep, and spared them and that God had pity on them both."

And still the sunbeam fell upon the white face of Iseult, and the King
took his ermined gloves and put them up against the crevice whence it
shone.

Then in her sleep a vision came to Iseult. She seemed to be in a great
wood and two lions near her fought for her, and she gave a cry and
woke, and the gloves fell upon her breast; and at the cry Tristan
woke, and made to seize his sword, and saw by the golden hilt that it
was the King's. And the Queen saw on her finger the King's ring, and
she cried:

"O, my lord, the King has found us here!"

And Tristan said:

"He has taken my sword; he was alone, but he will return, and will
burn us before the people. Let us fly."

So by great marches with Gorvenal alone they fled towards Wales.

OGRIN THE HERMIT

After three days it happened that Tristan, in following a wounded deer
far out into the wood, was caught by night-fall, and took to thinking
thus under the dark wood alone:

"It was not fear that moved the King ... he had my sword and I slept ...
and had he wished to slay, why did he leave me his own blade? ... O, my
father, my father, I know you now. There was pardon in your heart, and
tenderness and pity ... yet how was that, for who could forgive in this
matter without shame? ... It was not pardon it was understanding; th