to
fulfil that promise which thou madst to me concerning the Lady Belle
Isoult."

To this King Angus made reply: "I had hoped that now we were come to
Ireland you had changed your purpose in that matter. Are you yet of the
same mind as when you first spake to me?"

"Yea," said Sir Tristram, "for it cannot be otherwise."

"Well, then," said King Angus, "I shall go to prepare my daughter for this
ill-hap that is to befall her, though indeed it doth go against my heart to
do such a thing. After I have first spoken to her, you are to take the
matter into your own hands, for, to tell you the truth, I have not the
heart to contrive it further."

So King Angus went away from where Sir Tristram was, and he was gone a long
while. When he returned he said: "Sir, go you that way and the Lady Belle
Isoult will see you."

So Sir Tristram went in the direction King Angus had said, and a page
showed him the way. So by and by he came to where the Lady Belle Isoult
was, and it was a great chamber in a certain tower of the castle and high
up Under the eaves of the roof.

[Sidenote: How Lady Belle Isoult appeared to Sir Tristram] The Lady Belle
Isoult stood upon the farther side of this chamber so that the light from
the windows shone full upon her face, and Sir Tristram perceived that she
was extraordinarily beautiful, and rather like to a shining spirit than to
a lady of flesh and blood. For she was clad altogether in white and her
face was like to wax for whiteness and clearness, and she wore ornaments of
gold set with shining stones of divers colors about her neck and about her
arms so that they glistered with a wonderful lustre. Her eyes shone very
bright and clear like one with a fever, and Sir Tristram beheld that there
were channels of tears upon her face and several tears stood upon her white
cheeks like to shining jewels hanging suspended there.

So, for a while, Sir Tristram stood still without speaking and regarded her
from afar. Then after a while she spake and said, "Sir, what is this you
have done?" "Lady," he said, "I have done what God set me to do, though I
would rather die than do it."

She said, "Tristram, you have betrayed me." Upon the which he cried out in
a very loud and piercing voice, "Lady, say not so!"

She said: "Tristram, tell me, is it better to fulfil this pledge you have
made, knowing that in so doing you sacrifice both my happiness and your
happiness to satisfy your pride of honor; or is it bett