Tristan and Iseult Read Online Free PDF Page A

with no chance of getting their ship off the beach before the tide rose again, they were trapped!
    Then Tristan bade Gorvenal to bring a certain gold cup, fashioned after the Breton style, that they had among the treasures on board; and when the armed band came spurring out through the shallows to the sides of the ship, and their leader, the King’s Coast Marshal, demanded who they were and where they came from, he had a story ready for them.
    ‘I am called Tantris, and I and my companions aremerchants from Brittany, where our wives and children are now. And we travel the world buying in one country and selling in another, and so make our living as honest men may. Two weeks ago we sailed with three ships from our home port on a voyage to Ireland, but off Lyoness the storm that has but now passed over caught us and scattered us apart and drove us all ways at once, and last night it cast us here upon the Irish coast; but whether the other two ships were sunk or driven on some other shore, or whether they are still tossing on the sea far off from here, God knows. Therefore give us leave to land the horses which we have on board, for they are far spent with the pitching and tossing, and get our vessel farther up the beach where the tide will not lift her, while we seek for news of our fellows.’
    ‘How am I to know that you are not from Cornwall?’ demanded the Coast Marshal. ‘My orders from the King are that the crew of any Cornish ship that comes upon these coasts are to be put to death without mercy. Can you give me any proof that you are from Brittany as you say?’
    ‘Only this,’ said Tristan, taking the gold cup from Gorvenal, and holding it out. ‘You will see that it is in the Breton style.’
    The man’s eyes flickered at the sight of the gold. But, ‘You say yourself that you buy in one country and sell in another. There is no proof in that,’ he said.
    Tristan smiled. ‘Take it then as no more than a gift between friends, for yourself and your men. And play a friend’s part to us, gaining for us the King’s leave to bide here while we make our ship seaworthy again and seek news of our comrades.’
    And the Marshal took the cup. ‘I accept the gift in friendship, and I will speak for you to the King.’ And he went his way, leaving some of his men on guard.
    ‘And what now?’ said Gorvenal. ‘Think you that one will keep faith with us for the sake of a gold cup? Have you thought that he could break faith and still keep your bribe?’
    ‘I have thought,’ Tristan said, ‘and it is in my mind that he is one who can be bought, but who will keep his half of the bargain. He has taken the cup, and if I read him aright he will help us in fair exchange. At the least, we have won a breathing space.’
    Now some of the bystanders came to help them get the horses ashore, and as they were splashing the scared beasts up through the shallows, the bells of Wexford began to toll, and the men looked at each other and one said to another, ‘That is the third time in as many days! You’d think they would be having more sense than to be still throwing their lives away on this hopeless business.’
    And the other said, ‘When a man is young, and the blood swift and hot within him, there’s much that he will be risking for a beautiful princess.’
    ‘Risk is one thing,’ said the first, ‘but to be going out against this fire-dragon is certain death, so it is.’
    When Tristan heard this, he was at once eager to know more. ‘Pray you, remember that we are strangers in these parts,’ he said, ‘and tell me more of this – a dragon and a princess and you tolling bell – for I only half understand your words.’
    ‘Have you not heard, then,’ said one of men, ‘of the sorrow that has fallen upon Ireland in these last few months? A terrible fire-drake is laying waste the land,and now that the Morholt is dead, we have no champion who is strong enough to stand against him. The matter is so desperate that the