stram would come like a tamed fawn and listen to her,
hiding in the bushes; and in the end would come out and take the harp
from her hand and play on it himself, in mournful strains that brought
the tears to her eyes.

Thus for a quarter of a year the demented lover roamed the forest near
the castle. But at length he wandered deeper into the wilderness, and
the lady knew not whither he had gone. Finally, his clothes torn into
tatters by the thorns, and he fallen away till he was lean as a hound,
he fell into the fellowship of herdsmen and shepherds, who gave him
daily a share of their food, and made him do servile tasks. And when he
did any deed not to their liking they would beat him with rods. In the
end, as they looked upon him as witless, they clipped his hair and
beard, and made him look like a fool.

To such a vile extremity had love, jealousy, and despair brought the
brave knight Tristram de Lyonesse, that from being the fellow of lords
and nobles he became the butt of churls and cowherds. About this time it
happened that Dagonet, the fool and merry-maker of King Arthur, rode
into Cornwall with two squires, and chance brought them to a well in the
forest which was much haunted by the demented knight. The weather was
hot, and they alighted and stooped to drink at the well, while their
horses ran loose. As they bent over the well in their thirst, Tristram
suddenly appeared, and, moved by a mad freak, he seized Dagonet and
soused him headforemost in the well, and the two squires after him. The
dripping victims crawled miserably from the water, amid the mocking
laughter of the shepherds, while Tristram ran after the stray horses.
These being brought, he forced the fool and the squires to mount, soaked
as they were, and ride away.

But after Tristram had departed, Dagonet and the squires returned, and
accusing the shepherds of having set that madman on to assail them, they
rode upon the keepers of beasts and beat them shrewdly. Tristram, as it
chanced, was not so far off but that he saw this ill-treatment of those
who had fed him, and he ran back, pulled Dagonet from the saddle, and
gave him a stunning fall to the earth. Then he wrested the sword from
his hand and with it smote off the head of one of the squires, while the
other fled in terror. Tristram followed him, brandishing the sword
wildly, and leaping like a madman as he rushed into the forest.

When Dagonet had recovered from his swoon, he rode to King Mark