Then of a sudden she felt a great terror, for she remembered
how even such a piece of sword as that which had been broken off from that
blade, she had found in the wound of Sir Marhaus of which he had died. So
she stood for a while holding that sword of Sir Tristram in her hand and
looking as she had been turned into stone. At this the Lady Belle Isoult
was filled with a sort of fear, wherefore she said, "Lady, what ails you?"
The Queen said, "Nothing that matters," and therewith she laid aside the
sword of Sir Tristram and went very quickly to her own chamber. There she
opened her cabinet and took thence the piece of sword-blade which she had
drawn from the wound of Sir Marhaus, and which she had kept ever since.
With this she hurried back to the chamber of Sir Tristram, and fitted that
piece of the blade to the blade; and lo! it fitted exactly, and without
flaw.
[Sidenote: The Queen assails Sir Tristram] Upon that the Queen was seized
as with a sudden madness; for she shrieked out in a very loud voice,
"Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!" saying that word three times. Therewith she
snatched up the sword of Sir Tristram and she ran with great fury into the
room where he lay in his bath.
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