ent with
him. In the sunshine and the brisk wind Sir Tristram felt joyful, and
the merry waves slapped the sides of the ship full prettily as it
cleaved through the blue seas towards the west.

In the evening they saw the white cliffs and the brown rocks of
Ireland, and Sir Tristram took his harp and played thereon, for he had
learned to harp most featly in France, where he had lived seven years,
to learn all manner of courtly and noble pastimes. Soon the shipmen
cast anchor in a wide sheltered cove beneath a castle which stood on a
high rock beside a fair town.

Sir Tristram asked the master of the ship the name of that town.

'Cro-na-Shee, if it please you, my lord,' said the master.

'It pleases me well,' said Tristram; 'it should mean that there dwell
therein brave and noble knights, and damsels like unto fairies.'

Out of the merriness of his heart he thrummed his harp with so blithe
and strange a tune that in a little while the very folk upon the shore
came listening, and some began to dance, while others looked sad. For
though the tune was very merry, there was sadness also peeping from it.

It happened that King Anguish and his court were in that castle by the
sea, and a handmaiden of the queen came to where they sat and told them
of the knight that sat in his ship and harped so strange a lay that it
made one glad and sorry at the same time.

Then King Anguish sent a knight and begged the harper to take cheer
with him, and Sir Tristram was brought in a litter, and all the damsels
were sad at his sickness, and the knights sorrowed that a knight so
noble-looking should be so wounded. King Anguish asked him who he was
and how he came by his wound. And Sir Tristram, having learned that
this was the King of Ireland, whose champion he had worsted in the
battle, and thinking that his own name would be known, replied:

'I am of the country of Lyones, and my name is Sir Tramor, and my wound
was got in battle, as I fought for a lady's right.'

'I pity thee, sir knight,' said the king, who was a right noble king
and lovable, 'and by Heaven's aid, ye shall have all the help in this
country that ye may need.'

The king told him of the battle which Sir Marhaus had had on his behalf
with a knight named Sir Tristram, and how Sir Marhaus had come home
wounded unto death, and was dead this two months. On which Sir Tristram
feigned to be sorry, but said not much thereon.

Then did the king order his daughter to come be