So she brought this son to
Lyonesse with her, and he and Tristram were very good companions.
But the Lady Moeya took great hatred of Tristram, for she said in her
heart: "Except for this Tristram, mayhap my son might be King and overlord
of this land." And these thoughts brooded with her, so that after a while
she began to meditate how she might make away with Tristram so that her own
son might come into his inheritance.
Now at that time Tristram was about thirteen years of age and very large
and robust of form and of extraordinary strength of body and beauty of
countenance. But the son of Queen Moeya was not of such a sort, so the more
beautiful and noble Tristram was the more the Queen hated him. So one day
she called to her a very cunning chemist and she said to him: "Give me a
drink of such and such a sort, so that he who drinks thereof shall
certainly die, maugre help of any kind." And the chemist gave her what she
desired, and it was in a phial and was of a golden color.
[Sidenote: The Lady Moeya devises mischief against Tristram] Now Tristram
and the son of the Lady Moeya were wont to play ball in a certain court of
the castle, and when they would play there they would wax all of a heat
with their sport.
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