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Updated: June 23, 2025
"Sir Tristram de Lyonesse, I require thee, as thou art a true knight, to slay me, for I would not live in shame, though I might be lord of the earth. You must slay me, indeed, if you would win the field, for I shall never speak the hateful word of surrender." When Tristram heard this knightly defiance he knew not what to do.
Long, long ago, when Arthur was King of England, and King Mark was King of Cornwall, for there were many petty kings, who held their lands under King Arthur, there was born in Lyonesse a little boy, a king's son.
In a burst of passion he caught the guilty woman fiercely by the hand, drew his sword, and swore a mighty oath that he would kill her on the spot, unless she told him what had been in the cup and why it was put there. At this threat the queen, trembling and weeping with fright, acknowledged that it had been her design to kill Tristram, in order that her son should inherit the kingdom of Lyonesse.
Tell us your country and your name. Good lord, my name is Tristan, and I learnt these ways in my country of Lyonesse. Tristan, said the Master Huntsman, God reward the father that brought you up so nobly; doubtless he is a baron, rich and strong. Now Tristan knew both speech and silence, and he answered: No, lord; my father is a burgess.
At last Sir Tristram said, "In all my life I never met a knight so strong and well-breathed as ye be. It were a pity we should further hurt each other. Hold thy hand, fair knight, and tell me thy name." "That will I," answered he, "if thou wilt tell me thine." "My name," said he, "is Sir Tristram of Lyonesse." "And mine, Sir Lamoracke of Gaul."
"Sir," said the lady, "I beseech you to think twice before you enter into such an affair as that. Or rather be ruled by me and do not undertake this quest at all; for I misdoubt that anyone could conquer this huge and powerful champion, even if that knight were such as Sir Launcelot of the Lake or Sir Tristram of Lyonesse." "Nay," said she, "I know you not."
It was magic that I should find myself here without warning at Domrémy, the Bethlehem of warrior-woman's mercy. I had dreamed from boyhood of this place as a legend a memory of white chivalry to be found on no map, a record of beauty as utterly submerged as the lost land of Lyonesse. Hauntingly the words came back, "Who is this that cometh from Domrémy?
For, if Sir Launcelot was the chiefest of all the knights who ever came unto King Arthur's court, then it is hard to say whether Sir Tristram of Lyonesse or Sir Percival of Gales was second unto him in renown.
Maude was listening entranced, with parted lips; Constance carelessly, as if she knew all about it beforehand, and were chiefly amusing herself by watching the rapt face of her fellow-listener. "Long years thereafter," resumed Dame Agnes, "ay, and even now, men said and say, that at times ye may yet hear the sound and see the sight of the drowned cities of the Lyonesse.
But he who would fall in love with the Scillies before seeing them had better read the first half of Besant's Armorel of Lyonesse. The novelist was at his best when he wrote these pages. There is also good literary use of the islands in Mr. Mason's Watchers.
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