their will they ran before the
wind. The wind raged and big seas ran, and the air grew thick with
darkness, and the ocean itself turned dark, and the rain drove in
gusts. The yard snapped, and the sheet; they struck their sail, and
ran with wind and water. In an evil hour they had forgotten to haul
their pinnace aboard; it leapt in their wake, and a great sea broke it
away.

Then Iseult cried out: "God does not will that I should live to see
him, my love, once--even one time more. God wills my drowning in this
sea. O, Tristan, had I spoken to you but once again, it is little I
should have cared for a death come afterwards. But now, my love, I
cannot come to you; for God so wills it, and that is the core of my
grief."

And thus the Queen complained so long as the storm endured; but after
five days it died down. Kaherdin hoisted the sail, the white sail,
right up to the very masthead with great joy; the white sail, that
Tristan might know its colour from afar: and already Kaherdin saw
Britanny far off like a cloud. Hardly were these things seen and done
when a calm came, and the sea lay even and untroubled. The sail
bellied no longer, and the sailors held the ship now up, now down, the
tide, beating backwards and forwards in vain. They saw the shore afar
off, but the storm had carried their boat away and they could not
land. On the third night Iseult dreamt this dream: that she held in
her lap a boar's head which befouled her skirts with blood; then she
knew that she would never see her lover again alive.

Tristan was now too weak to keep his watch from the cliff of the
Penmarks, and for many long days, within walls, far from the shore, he
had mourned for Iseult because she did not come. Dolorous and alone,
he mourned and sighed in restlessness: he was near death from desire.

At last the wind freshened and the white sail showed. Then it was that
Iseult of the White Hands took her vengeance.

She came to where Tristan lay, and she said:

"Friend, Kaherdin is here. I have seen his ship upon the sea. She
comes up hardly--yet I know her; may he bring that which shall heal
thee, friend."

And Tristan trembled and said:

"Beautiful friend, you are sure that the ship is his indeed? Then tell
me what is the manner of the sail?"

"I saw it plain and well. They have shaken it out and hoisted it very
high, for they have little wind. For its colour, why, it is black."

And Tristan turned him to the wall, and said:

"