[Sidenote: Sir Tristram dwells with the swineherds] So he wandered until
he failed with faintness, and sank down into the leaves; and I believe that
he would then have died, had it not been that there chanced to come that
way certain swineherds of the forest who fed their swine upon acorns that
were to be therein found. These found Sir Tristram lying there as though
dead, and they gave him to eat and to drink so that he revived once more.
After that they took him with them, and he dwelt with them in those
woodlands. There these forest folk played with him and made merry with him,
and he made them great sport. For he was ever gentle and mild like a little
child for innocence so that he did no harm to anyone, but only talked in
such a way that the swineherds found great sport in him.
Now Sir Andred of Cornwall very greatly coveted the possessions of Sir
Tristram, so that when several months had passed by and Sir Tristram did
not return to Tintagel, he said to himself: "Of a surety, Tristram must now
be dead in the forest, and, as there is no one nigher of kin to him than I,
it is altogether fitting that I should inherit his possessions.
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