So he arose and stood before King Mark and
said: "Lord King, I have heard much ill said of thee and shameful things
concerning thy unknightliness in several courts of chivalry where I have
been; and now I know that those things were true; for I have heard from the
lips of many people here, how thou didst betray Sir Tristram into bringing
the Lady Belle Isoult unto thee; and I have heard from many how thou dost
ever do ill and wickedly by him, seeking to take from him both his honor
and his life. And yet Sir Tristram hath always been thy true and faithful
knight, and hath served thee in all ways thou hast demanded of him. I know
that thou hast jealousy for Sir Tristram in thy heart and that thou hast
ever imputed wickedness and sin unto him. Yet all the world knoweth that
Sir Tristram is a true knight and altogether innocent of any evil. For all
the evil which thou hast imputed to him hath no existence saving only in
thine own evil heart. Now I give thee and all thy people to know that had
ill befallen Sir Tristram at your hands I should have held you accountable
therefor and should have punished you in such a way that you would not soon
have forgotten it.
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