[Illustration: Sir Tristram harpeth before King Mark]
Chapter Fifth
_How Sir Tristram was sent by command of King Mark to go to Ireland to
bring the Lady the Belle Isoult from Ireland to Cornwall and how it fared
with him._
So Sir Tristram came back again to Cornwall, and King Mark and all the
knights and lords of the court of the King gave him great welcome and made
much joy over him because he had returned safely.
But Sir Tristram took no joy in their joy because he was filled with such
heavy melancholy that it was as though even the blue sky had turned to
sackcloth to his eyes, so that he beheld nothing bright in all the world.
[Sidenote: Sir Tristram tells of the Lady Bell Isoult] But though he had
no great pleasure in life, yet Sir Tristram made many very good songs about
Belle Isoult; about her beauty and her graciousness; about how he was her
sad, loving knight; about how he was pledged unto her to be true to her all
of his life even though he might never hope to see her again.
These like words he would sing to the music of his shining, golden harp,
and King Mark loved to listen to him.
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