aid: "Welcome, Messire, to these
parts! Welcome! And thrice welcome!"

Then Sir Tristram besought King Arthur that he would refresh himself, and
the King said he would do so. So Sir Tristram brought him to the chiefest
place, and there King Arthur sat him down. And Sir Tristram would have
served him with wine and with manchets of bread with his own hand, but King
Arthur would not have it so, but bade Sir Tristram to sit beside him on his
right hand, and Sir Tristram did so. After that, King Arthur spake to Sir
Tristram about many things, and chiefly about King Meliadus, the father of
Sir Tristram, and about the court of Lyonesse.

Then, after a while King Arthur said: "Messire, I hear tell that you are a
wonderful harper." And Sir Tristram said, "Lord, so men say of me." King
Arthur said, "I would fain hear your minstrelsy." To which Sir Tristram
made reply: "Lord, I will gladly do anything at all that will give you
pleasure."

So therewith Sir Tristram gave orders to Gouvernail, and Gouvernail brought
him his shining golden harp, and the harp glistered with great splendor in
the dim light of the pavilion.

[Sidenote: Sir Tristram sings before King Arthur] Sir Tristram took the
harp in his hands and tuned it and struck upon it. And he played upon the
harp, and he sang to the music thereof so wonderfully that they who sat
there listened in silence as though they were without breath. For not one
of them had ever heard such singing as that music which Sir Tristram sang;
for it was as though some angel were singing to those who sat there
harkening to his chanting.

So after Sir Tristram had ended, all who were there gave loud acclaim and
much praise to his singing. "Ha, Messire!" quoth King Arthur, "many times
in my life have I heard excellent singing, but never before in my life have
I heard such singing as that. Now I wish that we might always have you at
this court and that you would never leave us." And Sir Tristram said:
"Lord, I too would wish that I might always be with you and with these
noble knights of your court, for I have never met any whom I love as I love
them."

So they sat there in great joy and friendliness of spirit, and, for the
while, Sir Tristram forgot the mission he was upon and was happy in heart
and glad of that terrible storm that had driven him thitherward.

And now I shall tell you the conclusion of all these adventures, and of how
it fared with Sir Tristram.

[Illustration: Belle Isoul