TRISTAN AND ISEULT
drew his sword from its sheath and said again in his heart that they or he should die. And he signed to the woodman to be gone.
He came alone into the hut, sword bare, and watched them as they lay: but he saw that they were apart, and he wondered because between them was the naked blade.
Then he said to himself: "My God, I may not kill them. For all the time they have lived together in this wood, these two lovers, yet is the sword here between them, and throughout Christendom men know that sign. Therefore I will not slay, for that would be treason and wrong, but I will do so that when they wake they may know that I found them here, asleep, and spared them and that God had pity on them both."
And still the sunbeam fell upon the white face of Iseult, and the King took
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