But in that time the Lady Belle
Isoult would never see King Mark nor exchange a word with him, but lived
entirely apart from him and in her own life in a part of the castle; and at
that King Mark was struck with such bitterness of despair that he was like
to a demon in torment. For he saw, as it were, a treasure very near and yet
afar, for he could not come unto it. And the more he suffered that torment,
the more he hated Sir Tristram, for in his suffering it appeared to him
that Sir Tristram was the cause of that suffering.
So it came about that King Mark set spies to watch Sir Tristram, for in his
evil heart he suspected Sir Tristram of treason, and he hoped that his
spies might discover Sir Tristram in some act for which he might be
punished. So those spies watched Sir Tristram both night and day, but they
could find nothing that he did that was amiss.
Now one day Belle Isoult felt such a longing for Sir Tristram that she
could not refrain from sending a note to him beseeching him for to come to
her so that they might see one another again; and though Sir Tristram
misdoubted what he did, yet he went as she desired, even if it should mean
the peril of death to him.
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