Tristan and Iseult Read Online Free Page A

got this wound, from which I think that I shall die. The pirates made me harp for them, and it seems that my harping pleased them, for they put me in this little boat, with food for a few days, and set me adrift to live or die as might be.
    And the days and nights that have passed since then, I do not know; but truly I think that they have killed me as surely as they killed the rest of those on board our ship.’
    ‘You shall not die,’ said the King, ‘for the world would be the poorer if your harp were stilled; and here in Wexford we have one who can heal any man who is not already dead.’ And he ordered his people to bring a hurdle and carry the stranger up to his Chief Falconer’s house, for that was the nearest of the royal houses in the town; and he sent word to his daughter,the Princess Iseult, that there was a wounded man sorely in need of her healing art.
    Now if the Princess had come herself all that happened after might have been very different. But she did not come. She questioned the messenger closely as to Tristan’s wound, and when she had heard all that he had to say, she thought, Clearly this is a wound given by a poisoned weapon, and all such wounds will yield to the green salve or the red salve or the black salve. So she made up the salves, and a soothing drink of herbs that break fevers and give quiet sleep; and she gave them to the messenger, saying, ‘Take these to the Chief Falconer’s house, and bid the ladies of the house to bathe this wounded man in cool water and give him the herb drink. And bid them spread the green salve on clean linen and bind it over his wound, and if within a day and a night it is no better, bid them do the same with the red salve; and if within a day and a night it is no better, bid them use the black salve and send to me; and I will come.’
    So the women of the house bathed Tristan in cool water and gave him the herb drink, and spread the green salve on his wound, and he fell into a long dark sleep; the first quiet sleep that he had known in many nights and days. And when he woke, the fever had left him, and the stink was gone from his wound as the green salve drew out the poisons and made the sick flesh clean and wholesome again. And when word was taken to the Princess that the green salve had drawn out the poison with no need of the red or the black, she sent healing herbs for the women of the house to use, and thought no more of the matter, for her healing skill was often called into use.
    And so Tristan lay in the Chief Falconer’s house, tended by his wife and daughters, while the edges of the wound drew cleanly together, until the day came when he was well enough to go his way. Then he took his leave of the Chief Falconer’s household without ever having seen the Princess Iseult or she him at all. But the women of the Chief Falconer’s household were sad to see him go.
    He took his harp, and saying that one place was as good as another for a wandering minstrel, got himself taken aboard a ship bound for Wales; and from Wales he got another, and so came back to Cornwall long before his year was up, but long after Marc and Gorvenal and all who cared about him had given him up for dead.

4
The Quest and the Dragon
    KING MARC WAS so overjoyed at Tristan’s return that he determined to make him his heir. But his lords did not agree. ‘You are not yet old,’ they said, ’marry and have sons of your own!’
    ‘No son of my own could ever be as dear to me as Tristan,’ said Marc, ‘and none could ever be a stronger or a gentler King of Cornwall after I am gone. I have no wish to marry, for I am well enough as I am; and I have all the son I need.’
    At this the lords began to talk among themselves and some of them, who were jealous of Tristan, said that it was his doing, and began to look at him sideways under their brows. And Tristan, who had no wish to be King of Cornwall, heard their mutterings and saw their looks, and was hurt and angry in his heart, so