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Apart the lovers could neither live nor die, for it was life and death together; and Tristan fled his sorrow through seas and islands and many lands

He fled his sorrow still by seas and islands, till at last he came back to his land of Lyonesse, and there Rohalt, the keeper of faith, welcomed him with happy tears and called him son But he could not live in the peace of his own land, and he turned again and rode through kingdo adventure From the Lyonesse to the Lowlands, froh the Germanies and into Spain And many lords he served, and many deeds did, but for two years no news caer Then he thought that Iseult had forgotten

Now it happened one day that, riding with Gorvenal alone, he cah a wasted plain of ruined walls and empty hamlets and burnt fields everywhere, and the earth deserted of ht: "I a; ain Or why for two years has she er to find ives hih work; for little she re of old, little for et"

On the third day, at the hour of noon, Tristan and Gorvenal came near a hill where an old chantry stood and close by a here also; and Tristan asked asted land that was, and the hermit answered: "Lord, it is Breton land which Duke Hod holds, and once it was rich in pasture and ploughland, but Count Riol of Nantes has wasted it For you must know that this Count Riol was the Duke's vassal And the Duke has a daughter, fair ahters, and Count Riol would have taken her to wife; but her father refused her to a vassal, and Count Riol would have carried her away by force Many men have died in that quarrel"

And Tristan asked: "Can the Duke wage his war?"

And the hermit answered: "Hardly, my lord; yet his last keep of Carhaix holds out still, for the walls are strong, and strong is the heart of the Duke's son Kaherdin, a very good knight and bold; but the enemy surrounds them on every side and starves them Very hardly do they hold their castle"