"Yes, I was angered at the hunt."
"My lord, should one take so deeply the mischances of a game?"
Mark smiled and said:
"No, friend; no chance of hunting vexed me, but those three felons
whom you know; and I have driven them forth from my land."
"Sire, what did they say, or dare to say of me?"
"What matter? I have driven them forth."
"Sire, all living have this right: to say the word they have
conceived. And I would ask a question, but from whom shall I learn
save from you? I am alone in a foreign land, and have no one else to
defend me."
"They would have it that you should quit yourself by solemn oath and
by the ordeal of iron, saying 'that God was a true judge, and that as
the Queen was innocent, she herself should seek such judgment as would
clear her for ever.' This was their clamour and their demand
incessantly. But let us leave it. I tell you, I have driven them
forth."
Iseult trembled, but looking straight at the King, she said:
"Sire, call them back; I will clear myself by oath. But I bargain
this: that on the appointed day you call King Arthur and Lord Gawain,
Girflet, Kay the Seneschal, and a hundred of his knights to ride to
the Sandy Heath where your land marches with his, and a river flows
between; for I will not swear before your barons alone, lest they
should demand some new thing, and lest there should be no end to my
trials.
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