So the king began to cast about in his mind for a way whereby he might do some hurt to Sir Tristram, or even destroy him.
He called the young knight to him one day and said:
'Dear nephew, I have been thinking a long while of taking unto myself a wife, and I hear much of the beauty and goodness of the king's daughter of Ireland, whom men call La Belle Isoude. Now I would that you go to the king and bear my message to him.'
Sir Tristram was troubled in mind at these words. Since he had left La Belle Isoude he had had no ease of spirit, for now he knew that he loved her. Though she had been angered with him for his slaying her uncle, and he knew that the queen and other kinsfolk of Sir Marhaus would surely slay him if they could, yet had he hoped in a while to have gone to King Anguish and found some way to win Isoude for his wife.
'Ye are feared to go, then?' sneered King Mark, noting the silence of Sir Tristram. 'Then I will e'en send some other knight that is bolder.'
At that Sir Tristram flushed hotly and said:
'I fear not to go there or anywhere, and I will bear thy message, sir.'
'It is well,' said the king. 'I will send thee with a fine ship, and a rich company of knights, and I will get my scrivener to write my message.'
Now King Mark said all this by reason of his craft and treachery. He had heard how Sir Tristram had been full of the praises of La Belle Isoude, while yet, as he had learned, Sir Tristram had not promised himself in love to her. By his crafty speech King Mark had hoped to make Sir Tristram promise to go to Ireland to obtain her, not for himself, but for King Mark. So, therefore, if the king married La Belle Isoude, this would cause some grief and hurt to Sir Tristram.
But King Mark cared not overmuch whether he wedded La Belle Isoude or not. He believed that Sir Tristram would of a surety be slain by the kin of Sir Marhaus in Ireland, and, if so, King Mark's plot would succeed to the full.