Rohalt, the keeper of faith, took the child, but already Duke Morgan's
men besieged the Castle of Kanoel all round about. There is a wise
saying: "Fool-hardy was never hardy," and he was compelled to yield to
Duke Morgan at his mercy: but for fear that Morgan might slay
Rivalen's heir the Marshal hid him among his own sons.
When seven years were passed and the time had come to take the child
from the women, Rohalt put Tristan under a good master, the Squire
Gorvenal, and Gorvenal taught him in a few years the arts that go with
barony. He taught him the use of lance and sword and 'scutcheon and
bow, and how to cast stone quoits and to leap wide dykes also: and he
taught him to hate every lie and felony and to keep his given word;
and he taught him the various kinds of song and harp-playing, and the
hunter's craft; and when the child rode among the young squires you
would have said that he and his horse and his armour were all one
thing. To see him so noble and so proud, broad in the shoulders,
loyal, strong and right, all men glorified Rohalt in such a son. But
Rohalt remembering Rivalen and Blanchefleur (of whose youth and grace
all this was a resurrection) loved him indeed as a son, but in his
heart revered him as his lord.
Now all his joy was snatched from him on a day when certain merchants
of Norway, having lured Tristan to their ship, bore him off as a rich
prize, though Tristan fought hard, as a young wolf struggles, caught
in a gin.
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