Tristan, the slayer of Morold, is not the vassal of any
queen, and the nurse returns to the tent to report her failure.
Ysolde, however, has overheard Kurvenal's speech, and when she
learns that Tristan refuses to obey her summons, she comments
bitterly upon his lack of gratitude for all her tender care,
and confides to Brangeane how she spared him when he was ill
and at her mercy.

Brangeane vainly tries to make her believe that Tristan has shown
his appreciation by wooing her for the king rather than for
himself, and when Ysolde murmurs against a loveless marriage,
she shows her the magic potion intrusted to her care, which
will insure her becoming a loving and beloved wife.

The sight of the medicine chest in which it is secreted
unfortunately reminds Ysolde that she too knows the secret of
brewing draughts of all kinds, so she prepares a deadly potion,
trying all the while to make Brangeane believe that it is a
perfectly harmless drug, which will merely make her forget the
unhappy past.

While she is thus occupied, Kurvenal suddenly appears to announce
that they are about to land, and to bid her prepare to meet the
king, who has seen their coming and is wending his way down to
the shore to bid her welcome. Ysolde haughtily replies that she
will not stir a step until Tristan proffers an apology for his
rude behaviour and obeys her summons. After conferring together
for a few moments, Tristan and Kurvenal agree that it will be
wiser to appease the irate beauty by yielding to her wishes,
than to have an _esclandre_, and Tristan prepares to appear
before her. Ysolde, in the mean while, has passionately flung
herself into Brangeane's arms, fondly bidding her farewell,
and telling her to have the magic draught she has prepared all
ready to give to Tristan, with whom she means to drink atonement.

While Brangeane, who mistrusts her young mistress, is still
pleading with her to forget the past, Tristan respectfully
approaches the princess, and when she haughtily reproves him
for slighting her commands, he informs her, with much dignity,
that he deemed it his duty to keep his distance:--

'Good breeding taught,
Where I was upbrought,
That he who brings
The bride to her lord
Should stay afar from his trust.'

Ysolde retorts, that, as he is such a rigid observer of
etiquette, it would best behoove him to remember that as yet
he has not even proffered the usual atonement for shedding
the blood o