istram of Lyonesse]

Prologue.

There was a certain kingdom called Lyonesse, and the King of that country
was hight Meliadus, and the Queen thereof who was hight the Lady Elizabeth,
was sister to King Mark of Cornwall.

In the country of Lyonesse, there was a very beautiful lady, who was a
cunning and wicked sorceress. This lady took great love for King Meliadus,
who was of an exceedingly noble appearance, and she meditated continually
how she might bring him to her castle so as to have him near her.

[Sidenote: King Meliadus rides a-hunting] Now King Meliadus was a very
famous huntsman, and he loved the chase above all things in the world,
excepting the joy he took in the love of his Queen, the Lady Elizabeth. So,
upon a certain day, in the late autumn season he was minded to go forth
a-hunting, although the day was very cold and bleak.

About the prime of the day the hounds started, of a sudden, a very
wonderful stag. For it was white and its horns were gilded very bright,
shining like pure gold, so that the creature itself appeared like a living
miracle in the forest. When this stag broke cover, the hounds immediately
set chase to it with a great outcry of yelling, as though they were
suddenly gone frantic, and when the King beheld the creature, he also was
immediately seized as with a great fury for chasing it. For, beholding it,
he shouted aloud and drove spurs into his horse, and rushed away at such a
pass that his court was, in a little while, left altogether behind him, and
he and the chase were entirely alone in the forest.

[Sidenote: King Meliadus chases the stag] The stag, with the hounds close
behind it, ran at a great rate through the passes of the woodlands, and
King Meliadus pursued it with might and main until the chase burst out of
the forest into an open plain beyond the woodland. Then King Meliadus
beheld that in the midst of the plain was a considerable lake of water; and
that in the midst of the water was an island; and that upon the island was
a very tall and stately castle. Toward this castle the stag ran with great
speed, and so, coming to the lake, it leaped into the water and swam across
to the island--and there was a thin sheet of clear ice upon the water close
to either bank.

But when the hounds that pursued the stag came to that frozen water, they
stinted their pursuit and stood whimpering upon the brink, for the ice and
the water repelled them. But King Meliadus made no such p