THE ROMANCE OF
of the night when he had seen Tristan under the great pine-tree, and Iseult with her clear face, and he thought:
"If I find them I will avenge this awful wrong."
At the foot of the red cross he came to the woodman and said:
"Go first, and lead me straight and quickly."
The dark shade of the great trees wrapt them round, and as the King followed the spy he felt his sword, and trusted it for the great blows it had struck of old; and surely had Tristan wakened, one of the two had stayed there dead. Then the woodman said:
"King, we are near."
He held the stirrup, and tied the rein to a green apple-tree, and saw in a sunlit glade the hut with its flowers and leaves. Then the King cast his cloak with its fine buckle of gold and
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