about him. But, though he was thus mad, he was still
gentle and kind in his madness and courteous and civil to all those who
came nigh him.

So Sir Tristram remained a gentle captive in the castle of the Lady Loise
for nigh upon a month, and somewhiles she would sing and harp to him, and
otherwhiles he himself would harp and sing. But ever and anon, when he
found the chance for to do so, he would escape from the captivity of the
castle and seek the forest; for he was aware of his madness and he ever
sought to hide that madness in the deep and shady woodland where only the
wild creatures of the forest might see him.

Yet always when he so escaped the Lady Loise would take her little golden
harp and go forth to the skirts of the forest and play upon it, and when
the music thereof would reach Sir Tristram's ears he would return to the
castle, being led thither by the music.

[Sidenote: Sir Tristram quits the Lady's castle] But one day he wandered
so far astray that the music of the harp could not reach his ears, and then
he wandered on farther and farther until he was altogether lost. At that
Lady Loise took much sorrow for she had much love for Sir Tristram. So she
sent many of her people to search the forest for him, but none of these
were able to find him and thereafter he came no more to the castle.

Thus Sir Tristram escaped from that castle and after that he wandered in
the forest as he had done at the first. And in that time he took no food
and but little rest. And the brambles tore his clothes, so that in a short
time he was wellnigh altogether naked.

And somewhiles during this time of wandering he would be seized as with a
fury of battle, and in such case he would shout aloud as though in
challenge to an enemy. And then he would rend and tear great branches from
the trees in the fury of his imaginings. But otherwhiles he would wander
through the leafy aisles of the forest in gentler mood, singing so sweetly
that had you heard him you would have thought that it was some fairy spirit
of the forest chanting in those solitudes.

[Sidenote: Sir Tristram dwells with the swineherds] So he wandered until
he failed with faintness, and sank down into the leaves; and I believe that
he would then have died, had it not been that there chanced to come that
way certain swineherds of the forest who fed their swine upon acorns that
were to be therein found. These found Sir Tristram lying there as though
dead, and they gave h