Sire, he sleeps with the peers in your
chamber; go you out when the first sleep falls on men, and if he love
Iseult so madly, why, then I swear by God and by the laws of Rome, he
will try to speak with her before he rides. But if he do so unknown to
you or to me, then slay me. As for the trap, let me lay it, but do you
say nothing of his ride to him until the time for sleep."
And when King Mark had agreed, this dwarf did a vile thing. He bought
of a baker four farthings' worth of flour, and hid it in the turn of
his coat. That night, when the King had supped and the men-at-arms lay
down to sleep in hall, Tristan came to the King as custom was, and the
King said:
"Fair nephew, do my will: ride to-morrow night to King Arthur at
Carduel, and give him this brief, with my greeting, that he may open
it: and stay you with him but one day."
And when Tristan said: "I will take it on the morrow;"
The King added: "Aye, and before day dawn."
But, as the peers slept all round the King their lord, that night, a
mad thought took Tristan that, before he rode, he knew not for how
long, before dawn he would say a last word to the Queen. And there was
a spear length in the darkness between them. Now the dwarf slept with
the rest in the King's chamber, and when he thought that all slept he
rose and scattered the flour silently in the spear length that lay
between Tristan and the Queen; but Tristan watched and saw him, and
said to himself:
"It is to mark my footsteps, but there shall be no marks to show.
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