might
be. Then Sir Palomides, rising from the ground, caught his horse, and
full of shame, would have slunk from the field. But the white knight
rode after him and bade him turn, 'for,' said the stranger, 'he would
better prove him with the sword.'

Then, alighting, they lashed at each other with their swords. Now Sir
Palomides was a powerful man, and his strokes were passing heavy, but
Sir Tristram, for the stranger knight was he, felt so full of strength
and joy after his long leisure, that he played with Sir Palomides, and
men wondered at the might of his blows, and his swiftness was a marvel
to see. In a while, with a great buffet on the head of the pagan
knight, Sir Tristram felled him to the earth.

'Now yield thee,' said the white knight sternly, 'and do my command, or
I will slay thee of a surety.'

Sir Palomides was sore adread, and promised.

'Swear me this,' said the stranger, 'that upon pain of thy life thou
leave my lady La Belle Isoude, and come not unto her ever again, and
for a year and a day thou shalt bear no armour. Promise me this, or
here shalt thou die!'

'I swear it,' said Sir Palomides, 'but I am for ever shamed.'

In his rage Sir Palomides cut off his armour and threw it from him and
fled away on his horse.

Then the white knight also went away, and none knew who he was. The
king sent after him, to tell him he was the winner of the lady, whom he
should wed, but the messengers could not find him. Men marvelled much
at this, that the victor knight should not come to claim the rich lady
for his wife with the wide lands that went with her.

When Sir Tristram returned to the private postern where La Belle Isoude
had led him forth secretly, he found her standing breathless, and she
was pale and red by turns, and could not speak at first.

'Thou--thou hast not failed?' she said, and clasped her hands.

'Nay,' said Sir Tristram, laughing. 'He will never trouble you again.
And, by Our Lady, I wished there had been six of him, for I never felt
more full of fight and strength than I do this day.'

'But--but have ye not claimed the prize?' said La Belle Isoude, and hid
her face that was so deathly white.

'Nay, nor will I,' said Sir Tristram, 'for I crave not to be married. I
would be free and go forth into strange lands to seek adventures.'

He went from her, with the tune of a hunting song upon his lips, and
saw not how La Belle Isoude trembled against the wall and was near to
swoon.

F