The Romance of Tristan and Iseult Part 5

The servants ran to the room where watch was kept on the two lovers; and they dragged Tristan out by his hands though he wept for his honour; but as they dragged him off in such a shame, the Queen still called to him:

?Friend, if I die that you may live, that will be great joy.?

Now, hear how full of pity is G.o.d and how He heard the lament and the prayers of the common folk, that day.

For as Tristan and his guards went down from the town to where the f.a.ggot burned, near the road upon a rock was a chantry, it stood at a cliff?s edge steep and sheer, and it turned to the sea-breeze; in the apse of it were windows glazed. Then Tristan said to those with him:

?My lords, let me enter this chantry, to pray for a moment the mercy of G.o.d whom I have offended; my death is near. There is but one door to the place, my lords, and each of you has his sword drawn. So, you may well see that, when my prayer to G.o.d is done, I must come past you again: when I have prayed G.o.d, my lords, for the last time.

And one of the guards said: ?Why, let him go in.?

So they let him enter to pray. But he, once in, dashed through and leapt the altar rail and the altar too and forced a window of the apse, and leapt again over the cliff?s edge. So might he die, but not of that shameful death before the people.

Now learn, my lords, how generous was G.o.d to him that day. The wind took Tristan?s cloak and he fell upon a smooth rock at the cliff?s foot, which to this day the men of Cornwall call ?Tristan?s leap.?

His guards still waited for him at the chantry door, but vainly, for G.o.d was now his guard. And he ran, and the fine sand crunched under his feet, and far off he saw the f.a.ggot burning, and the smoke and the crackling flames; and fled.

Sword girt and bridle loose, Gorvenal had fled the city, lest the King burn him in his master?s place: and he found Tristan on the sh.o.r.e.

?Master,? said Tristan, ?G.o.d has saved me, but oh! master, to what end? For without Iseult I may not and I will not live, and I rather had died of my fall. They will burn her for me, then I too will die for her.?

?Lord,? said Gorvenal, ?take no counsel of anger. See here this thicket with a ditch dug round about it. Let us hide therein where the track pa.s.ses near, and comers by it will tell us news; and, boy, if they burn Iseult, I swear by G.o.d, the Son of Mary, never to sleep under a roof again until she be avenged.?

There was a poor man of the common folk that had seen Tristan?s fall, and had seen him stumble and rise after, and he crept to Tintagel and to Iseult where she was bound, and said:

?Queen, weep no more. Your friend has fled safely.?

?Then I thank G.o.d,? said she, ?and whether they bind or loose me, and whether they kill or spare me, I care but little now.?

And though blood came at the cord-knots, so tightly had the traitors bound her, yet still she said, smiling:

?Did I weep for that when G.o.d has loosed my friend I should be little worth.?

When the news came to the King that Tristan had leapt that leap and was lost he paled with anger, and bade his men bring forth Iseult.

They dragged her from the room, and she came before the crowd, held by her delicate hands, from which blood dropped, and the crowd called:

?Have pity on her?the loyal Queen and honoured! Surely they that gave her up brought mourning on us all?our curses on them!?

But the King?s men dragged her to the thorn f.a.ggot as it blazed. She stood up before the flame, and the crowd cried its anger, and cursed the traitors and the King. None could see her without pity, unless he had a felon?s heart: she was so tightly bound. The tears ran down her face and fell upon her grey gown where ran a little thread of gold, and a thread of gold was twined into her hair.

Just then there had come up a hundred lepers of the King?s, deformed and broken, white horribly, and limping on their crutches. And they drew near the flame, and being evil, loved the sight. And their chief Ivan, the ugliest of them all, cried to the King in a quavering voice:

?O King, you would burn this woman in that flame, and it is sound justice, but too swift, for very soon the fire will fall, and her ashes will very soon be scattered by the high wind and her agony be done. Throw her rather to your lepers where she may drag out a life for ever asking death.?

And the King answered:

?Yes; let her live that life, for it is better justice and more terrible. I can love those that gave me such a thought.?

And the lepers answered:

?Throw her among us, and make her one of us. Never shall lady have known a worse end. And look,? they said, ?at our rags and our abominations. She has had pleasure in rich stuffs and furs, jewels and walls of marble, honour, good wines and joy, but when she sees your lepers always, King, and only them for ever, their couches and their huts, then indeed she will know the wrong she has done, and bitterly desire even that great flame of thorns.?

And as the King heard them, he stood a long time without moving; then he ran to the Queen and seized her by the hand, and she cried:

?Burn me! rather burn me!?

But the King gave her up, and Ivan took her, and the hundred lepers pressed around, and to hear her cries all the crowd rose in pity. But Ivan had an evil gladness, and as he went he dragged her out of the borough bounds, with his hideous company.

Now they took that road where Tristan lay in hiding, and Gorvenal said to him:

?Son, here is your friend. Will you do naught??

Then Tristan mounted the horse and spurred it out of the bush, and cried:

?Ivan, you have been at the Queen?s side a moment, and too long. Now leave her if you would live.?

But Ivan threw his cloak away and shouted:

?Your clubs, comrades, and your staves! Crutches in the air?for a fight is on!?

Then it was fine to see the lepers throwing their capes aside, and stirring their sick legs, and brandis.h.i.+ng their crutches, some threatening: groaning all; but to strike them Tristan was too n.o.ble.

There are singers who sing that Tristan killed Ivan, but it is a lie.

Too much a knight was he to kill such things. Gorvenal indeed, s.n.a.t.c.hing up an oak sapling, crashed it on Ivan?s head till his blood ran down to his misshapen feet. Then Tristan took the Queen.

Henceforth near him she felt no further evil. He cut the cords that bound her arms so straightly, and he left the plain so that they plunged into the wood of Morois; and there in the thick wood Tristan was as sure as in a castle keep.

And as the sun fell they halted all three at the foot of a little hill: fear had wearied the Queen, and she leant her head upon his body and slept.

But in the morning, Gorvenal stole from a wood man his bow and two good arrows plumed and barbed, and gave them to Tristan, the great archer, and he shot him a fawn and killed it. Then Gorvenal gathered dry twigs, struck flint, and lit a great fire to cook the venison. And Tristan cut him branches and made a hut and garnished it with leaves.

And Iseult slept upon the thick leaves there.

So, in the depths of the wild wood began for the lovers that savage life which yet they loved very soon.

PART THE SECOND

THE WOOD OF MOROIS

They wandered in the depths of the wild wood, restless and in haste like beasts that are hunted, nor did they often dare to return by night to the shelter of yesterday. They ate but the flesh of wild animals. Their faces sank and grew white, their clothes ragged; for the briars tore them. They loved each other and they did not know that they suffered.

One day, as they were wandering in these high woods that had never yet been felled or ordered, they came upon the hermitage of Ogrin.

The old man limped in the sunlight under a light growth of maples near his chapel: he leant upon his crutch, and cried:

?Lord Tristan, hear the great oath which the Cornish men have sworn.

The King has published a ban in every parish: Whosoever may seize you shall receive a hundred marks of gold for his guerdon, and all the barons have sworn to give you up alive or dead. Do penance, Tristan!

G.o.d pardons the sinner who turns to repentance.?