" they said, "and who may she be?"

"Why," said he, "she whose hair this is; nor will I take another."

"And whence, lord King, comes this Hair of Gold; who brought it and
from what land?"

"It comes, my lords, from the Lady with the Hair of Gold, the swallows
brought it me. They know from what country it came."

Then the barons saw themselves mocked and cheated, and they turned
with sneers to Tristan, for they thought him to have counselled the
trick. But Tristan, when he had looked on the Hair of Gold, remembered
Iseult the Fair and smiled and said this:

"King Mark, can you not see that the doubts of these lords shame me?
You have designed in vain. I will go seek the Lady with the Hair of
Gold. The search is perilous: never the less, my uncle, I would once
more put my body and my life into peril for you; and that your barons
may know I love you loyally, I take this oath, to die on the adventure
or to bring back to this castle of Tintagel the Queen with that fair
hair."

He fitted out a great ship and loaded it with corn and wine, with
honey and all manner of good things; he manned it with Gorvenal and a
hundred young knights of high birth, chosen among the bravest, and he
clothed them in coats of home-spun and in hair cloth so that they
seemed merchants only: but under the deck he hid rich cloth of gold
and scarlet as for a great king's messengers.

When the ship had taken the sea the helmsman asked him:

"Lord, to what land shall I steer?"

"Sir," said he, "steer for Ireland, straight for Whitehaven harbour."

At first Tristan made believe to the men of Whitehaven that his
friends were merchants of England come peacefully to barter; but as
these strange merchants passed the day in the useless games of
draughts and chess, and seemed to know dice better than the bargain
price of corn, Tristan feared discovery and knew not how to pursue his
quest.

Now it chanced once upon the break of day that he heard a cry so
terrible that one would have called it a demon's cry; nor had he ever
heard a brute bellow in such wise, so awful and strange it seemed. He
called a woman who passed by the harbour, and said:

"Tell me, lady, whence comes that voice I have heard, and hide me
nothing."

"My lord," said she, "I will tell you truly. It is the roar of a
dragon the most terrible and dauntless upon earth. Daily it leaves its
den and stands at one of the gates of the city: Nor can any come out
or go in till a maiden h