[Sidenote: Sir Tristram and Belle Isoult drink the love potion] Now
immediately Sir Tristram had drunk that elixir he felt it run like fire
through every vein in his body. Thereupon he cried out, "Lady, what is this
you have given me to drink?" She said: "Tristram, that was a powerful love
potion intended for King Mark and me. But now thou and I have drunk of it
and never henceforth can either of us love anybody in all of the world but
the other."
Then Sir Tristram catched her into his arms and he cried out: "Isoult!
Isoult! what hast thou done to us both? Was it not enough that I should
have been unhappy but that thou shouldst have chosen to be unhappy also?"
Thereat the Lady Belle Isoult both wept and smiled, looking up into Sir
Tristram's face, and she said: "Nay, Tristram; I would rather be sorry with
thee than happy with another." He said, "Isoult, there is much woe in this
for us both." She said, "I care not, so I may share it with thee."
Thereupon Sir Tristram kissed her thrice upon the face, and then
immediately put her away from him and he left her and went away by himself
in much agony of spirit.
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