iodas and his Queen; so one day, when the King was
hunting, she brought it to pass by her charms that Meliodas chased
a hart till he found himself, far from all his men, alone by an old
castle, and there he was taken prisoner by the lady's knights.

When King Meliodas did not return home, the Queen was nigh crazed
with grief. Attended only by one of the ladies of her court, she
ran out into the forest to seek her lord. Long and far she
wandered, until she could go no further, but sank down at the foot
of a great tree, and there, in the midst of the forest, was her
little son born. When the Queen knew that she must die, she kissed
the babe and said: "Ah! little son, sad has been thy birth,
wherefore thy name shall be Tristram; but thou shalt grow to be a
brave knight and a strong." Then she charged her gentlewoman to
take care of the child and to commend her to King Meliodas; and
after that she died. All too late came many of the barons seeking
their Queen, and sorrowfully they bore her back to the castle where
presently the King arrived, released by the skill of Merlin from
the evil spells of the enchantress. Great indeed was his grief for
the death of his Queen. He caused her to be buried with all the
pomp and reverence due to so good and fair a lady, and long and
bitterly he mourned her loss and all the people with him.

But at the end of seven years, King Meliodas took another wife.
Then, when the Queen had sons of her own, it angered her to think
that in the days to come, her stepson Tristram, and none other,
should rule the fair land of Liones. The more she thought of it,
the more she hated him till, at the last, she was resolved to do
away with him. So she filled a silver goblet with a pleasant drink
in which she had mixed poison, and she set it in the room where
Tristram played with the young princes, his half-brothers. Now the
day was hot, and presently, being heated with his play, the young
prince, the Queen's eldest son, drank of the poisoned goblet; and
immediately he died. Much the Queen grieved, but more than ever she
hated her stepson Tristram, as if, through him, her son had died.
Presently, again she mixed poison and set it in a goblet; and that
time, King Meliodas, returning thirsty from the chase, took the cup
and would have drunk of it, only the Queen cried to him to forbear.
Then the King recalled to mind how his young son had drunk of a
seeming pleasant drink and died on the instant; and seizing t