When Tristan, as I have related,
had adventured in Almanje
for half a year or longer,
he began to feel the longing
to return once more to his homeland
in order to find out there
what sort of news and stories 
were being told about his lady.
He had made up his mind
to depart from Almanje
and once again make his way
back as he had come,
returning to Normandie
and thence to Parmenie
to visit Rual's children.
He thought to find Rual himself,
and tell him of his distress,
but he was no longer alive,
nor was his wife Floraete.

But you should know that Rual's sons
who were still living there
greeted Tristan's arrival
with the most heartfelt pleasure.
The welcome they accorded him
was full of innocent delight.
The kissed his hands and his feet,
they kissed his eyes and his mouth,
many times, over and over.
"Sir," they told him eagerly,
"God has sent us in your person
once again father and mother.
Most good and faithful lord,
now you must settle here
and take again to yourself
all that is rightly yours and ours.
Let us prosper here with you
as did before us our father
who was bound to you in fealty,
as we are also glad to be.
Our mother, so dear to you,
and our father are both dead,
but God has taken compassion
on our great need in you,
whom he has now sent to us."

Tristan, already full of sorrow,
now had cause for even more
regret and great discomfort.
He asked to be shown their graves,
and having been conducted there,
he stood long in meditation,			18650
weeping and lamenting, 
giving vent to his regrets.
He spoke with great emotion.
"God, the all-powerful, knows—
if it shall come to this,
as I have heard since childhood,
that loyalty and noble honor
can be buried in the earth,
they both lie here interred.
And if loyalty and honor
consort with God, as it is said,
then I have not the slightest doubt
that this is surely the truth:
they two stand in God's sight,
Rual and Floraete,
whom God put in the world
to its benefit and dignity.
They wear the crown now
where all of God's children are crowned."
Those blessed sons of Rual
put at Tristan's disposal
with the purest of good will
their homes, persons, and possessions,
ready to be of service to him
to the best of their ability.
At every hour of the day
they were at his command.
Whatever he ordered was done
in all matters concerning him
as far as they could accomplish.
They accompanied his inspection
of the knighthood and the ladies.
They were at his side for many days
of tourney, tracking, and hunt,
whatever diversion he undertook.