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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Outlaw of Torn, by Burroughs
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+The Outlaw of Torn
+
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+December, 1995  [Etext #369]
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+
+
+
+EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
+
+THE OUTLAW OF TORN
+
+
+
+To My Friend
+
+JOSEPH E. BRAY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+Here is a story that has lain dormant for seven hundred years.  At first it
+was suppressed by one of the Plantagenet kings of England.  Later it was
+forgotten.  I happened to dig it up by accident.  The accident being the
+relationship of my wife's cousin to a certain Father Superior in a very
+ancient monastery in Europe.
+
+He let me pry about among a quantity of mildewed and musty manuscripts and
+I came across this.  It is very interesting -- partially since it is a bit
+of hitherto unrecorded history, but principally from the fact that it
+records the story of a most remarkable revenge and the adventurous life of
+its innocent victim -- Richard, the lost prince of England.
+
+In the retelling of it, I have left out most of the history.  What
+interested me was the unique character about whom the tale revolves -- the
+visored horseman who -- but let us wait until we get to him.
+
+It all happened in the thirteenth century, and while it was happening, it
+shook England from north to south and from east to west; and reached across
+the channel and shook France.  It started, directly, in the London palace
+of Henry III, and was the result of a quarrel between the King and his
+powerful brother-in-law, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester.
+
+Never mind the quarrel, that's history, and you can read all about it at
+your leisure.  But on this June day in the year of our Lord 1243, Henry so
+forgot himself as to very unjustly accuse De Montfort of treason in the
+presence of a number of the King's gentlemen.
+
+De Montfort paled.  He was a tall, handsome man, and when he drew himself
+to his full height and turned those gray eyes on the victim of his wrath,
+as he did that day, he was very imposing.  A power in England, second only
+to the King himself, and with the heart of a lion in him, he answered the
+King as no other man in all England would have dared answer him.
+
+"My Lord King," he cried, "that you be my Lord King alone prevents Simon de
+Montfort from demanding satisfaction for such a gross insult.  That you
+take advantage of your kingship to say what you would never dare say were
+you not king, brands me not a traitor, though it does brand you a coward."
+
+Tense silence fell upon the little company of lords and courtiers as these
+awful words fell from the lips of a subject, addressed to his king.  They
+were horrified, for De Montfort's bold challenge was to them but little
+short of sacrilege.
+
+Henry, flushing in mortification and anger, rose to advance upon De
+Montfort, but suddenly recollecting the power which he represented, he
+thought better of whatever action he contemplated and, with a haughty
+sneer, turned to his courtiers.
+
+"Come, my gentlemen," he said, "methought that we were to have a turn with
+the foils this morning.  Already it waxeth late.  Come, DeFulm !  Come,
+Leybourn !" and the King left the apartment followed by his gentlemen, all
+of whom had drawn away from the Earl of Leicester when it became apparent
+that the royal displeasure was strong against him.  As the arras fell
+behind the departing King, De Montfort shrugged his broad shoulders, and
+turning, left the apartment by another door.
+
+When the King, with his gentlemen, entered the armory he was still smarting
+from the humiliation of De Montfort's reproaches, and as he laid aside his
+surcoat and plumed hat to take the foils with De Fulm, his eyes alighted on
+the master of fence, Sir Jules de Vac, who was advancing with the King's
+foil and helmet.  Henry felt in no mood for fencing with De Fulm, who, like
+the other sycophants that surrounded him, always allowed the King easily to
+best him in every encounter.
+
+De Vac he knew to be too jealous of his fame as a swordsman to permit
+himself to be overcome by aught but superior skill, and this day Henry felt
+that he could best the devil himself.
+
+The armory was a great room on the main floor of the palace, off the guard
+room.  It was built in a small wing of the building so that it had light
+from three sides.  In charge of it was the lean, grizzled, leather-skinned
+Sir Jules de Vac, and it was he whom Henry commanded to face him in mimic
+combat with the foils, for the King wished to go with hammer and tongs at
+someone to vent his suppressed rage.
+
+So he let De Vac assume to his mind's eye the person of the hated De
+Montfort, and it followed that De Vac was nearly surprised into an early
+and mortifying defeat by the King's sudden and clever attack.
+
+Henry III had always been accounted a good swordsman, but that day he quite
+outdid himself and, in his imagination, was about to run the pseudo De
+Montfort through the heart, to the wild acclaim of his audience.  For this
+fell purpose he had backed the astounded De Vac twice around the hall when,
+with a clever feint, and backward step, the master of fence drew the King
+into the position he wanted him, and with the suddenness of lightning, a
+little twist of his foil sent Henry's weapon clanging across the floor of
+the armory.
+
+For an instant, the King stood as tense and white as though the hand of
+death had reached out and touched his heart with its icy fingers.  The
+episode meant more to him than being bested in play by the best swordsman
+in England -- for that surely was no disgrace -- to Henry it seemed
+prophetic of the outcome of a future struggle when he should stand face to
+face with the real De Montfort; and then, seeing in De Vac only the
+creature of his imagination with which he had vested the likeness of his
+powerful brother-in-law, Henry did what he should like to have done to the
+real Leicester.  Drawing off his gauntlet he advanced close to De Vac.
+
+"Dog !" he hissed, and struck the master of fence a stinging blow across
+the face, and spat upon him.  Then he turned on his heel and strode from
+the armory.
+
+De Vac had grown old in the service of the kings of England, but he hated
+all things English and all Englishmen.  The dead King John, though hated by
+all others, he had loved, but with the dead King's bones De Vac's loyalty
+to the house he served had been buried in the Cathedral of Worcester.
+
+During the years he had served as master of fence at the English Court, the
+sons of royalty had learned to thrust and parry and cut as only De Vac
+could teach the art, and he had been as conscientious in the discharge of
+his duties as he had been in his unswerving hatred and contempt for his
+pupils.
+
+And now the English King had put upon him such an insult as might only be
+wiped out by blood.
+
+As the blow fell, the wiry Frenchman clicked his heels together, and
+throwing down his foil, he stood erect and rigid as a marble statue before
+his master.  White and livid was his tense drawn face, but he spoke no
+word.
+
+He might have struck the King, but then there would have been left to him
+no alternative save death by his own hand; for a king may not fight with a
+lesser mortal, and he who strikes a king may not live -- the king's honor
+must be satisfied.
+
+Had a French king struck him, De Vac would have struck back, and gloried in
+the fate which permitted him to die for the honor of France; but an English
+King -- pooh !  a dog; and who would die for a dog ?  No, De Vac would find
+other means of satisfying his wounded pride.  He would revel in revenge
+against this man for whom he felt no loyalty.  If possible, he would harm
+the whole of England if he could, but he would bide his time.  He could
+afford to wait for his opportunity if, by waiting, he could encompass a
+more terrible revenge.
+
+De Vac had been born in Paris, the son of a French officer reputed the best
+swordsman in France.  The son had followed closely in the footsteps of his
+father until, on the latter's death, he could easily claim the title of his
+sire.  How he had left France and entered the service of John of England is
+not of this story.  All the bearing that the life of Jules de Vac has upon
+the history of England hinges upon but two of his many attributes -- his
+wonderful swordsmanship and his fearful hatred for his adopted country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+South of the armory of Westminster Palace lay the gardens, and here, on the
+third day following the King's affront to De Vac, might have been a seen a
+black-haired woman gowned in a violet cyclas, richly embroidered with gold
+about the yoke and at the bottom of the loose-pointed sleeves, which
+reached almost to the similar bordering on the lower hem of the garment.  A
+richly wrought leathern girdle, studded with precious stones, and held in
+place by a huge carved buckle of gold, clasped the garment about her waist
+so that the upper portion fell outward over the girdle after the manner of
+a blouse.  In the girdle was a long dagger of beautiful workmanship.
+Dainty sandals encased her feet, while a wimple of violet silk bordered in
+gold fringe, lay becomingly over her head and shoulders.
+
+By her side walked a handsome boy of about three, clad, like his companion,
+in gay colors.  His tiny surcoat of scarlet velvet was rich with
+embroidery, while beneath was a close-fitting tunic of white silk.  His
+doublet was of scarlet, while his long hose of white were cross-gartered
+with scarlet from his tiny sandals to his knees.  On the back of his brown
+curls sat a flat-brimmed, round-crowned hat in which a single plume of
+white waved and nodded bravely at each move of the proud little head.
+
+The child's features were well molded, and his frank, bright eyes gave an
+expression of boyish generosity to a face which otherwise would have been
+too arrogant and haughty for such a mere baby.  As he talked with his
+companion, little flashes of peremptory authority and dignity, which sat
+strangely upon one so tiny, caused the young woman at times to turn her
+head from him that he might not see the smiles which she could scarce
+repress.
+
+Presently the boy took a ball from his tunic, and, pointing at a little
+bush near them, said, "Stand you there, Lady Maud, by yonder bush.  I would
+play at toss."
+
+The young woman did as she was bid, and when she had taken her place and
+turned to face him the boy threw the ball to her.  Thus they played beneath
+the windows of the armory, the boy running blithely after the ball when he
+missed it, and laughing and shouting in happy glee when he made a
+particularly good catch.
+
+In one of the windows of the armory overlooking the garden stood a grim,
+gray, old man, leaning upon his folded arms, his brows drawn together in a
+malignant scowl, the corners of his mouth set in a stern, cold line.
+
+He looked upon the garden and the playing child, and upon the lovely young
+woman beneath him, but with eyes which did not see, for De Vac was working
+out a great problem, the greatest of all his life.
+
+For three days, the old man had brooded over his grievance, seeking for
+some means to be revenged upon the King for the insult which Henry had put
+upon him.  Many schemes had presented themselves to his shrewd and cunning
+mind, but so far all had been rejected as unworthy of the terrible
+satisfaction which his wounded pride demanded.
+
+His fancies had, for the most part, revolved about the unsettled political
+conditions of Henry's reign, for from these he felt he might wrest that
+opportunity which could be turned to his own personal uses and to the harm,
+and possibly the undoing, of the King.
+
+For years an inmate of the palace, and often a listener in the armory when
+the King played at sword with his friends and favorites, De Vac had heard
+much which passed between Henry III and his intimates that could well be
+turned to the King's harm by a shrewd and resourceful enemy.
+
+With all England, he knew the utter contempt in which Henry held the terms
+of the Magna Charta which he so often violated along with his kingly oath
+to maintain it.  But what all England did not know, De Vac had gleaned from
+scraps of conversation dropped in the armory: that Henry was even now
+negotiating with the leaders of foreign mercenaries, and with Louis IX of
+France, for a sufficient force of knights and men-at-arms to wage a
+relentless war upon his own barons that he might effectively put a stop to
+all future interference by them with the royal prerogative of the
+Plantagenets to misrule England.
+
+If he could but learn the details of this plan, thought De Vac: the point
+of landing of the foreign troops; their numbers; the first point of
+attack.  Ah, would it not be sweet revenge indeed to balk the King in this
+venture so dear to his heart !
+
+A word to De Clare, or De Montfort would bring the barons and their
+retainers forty thousand strong to overwhelm the King's forces.
+
+And he would let the King know to whom, and for what cause, he was beholden
+for his defeat and discomfiture.  Possibly the barons would depose Henry,
+and place a new king upon England's throne, and then De Vac would mock the
+Plantagenet to his face.  Sweet, kind, delectable vengeance, indeed !  And
+the old man licked his thin lips as though to taste the last sweet vestige
+of some dainty morsel.
+
+And then Chance carried a little leather ball beneath the window where the
+old man stood; and as the child ran, laughing, to recover it, De Vac's eyes
+fell upon him, and his former plan for revenge melted as the fog before the
+noonday sun; and in its stead there opened to him the whole hideous plot of
+fearsome vengeance as clearly as it were writ upon the leaves of a great
+book that had been thrown wide before him.  And, in so far as he could
+direct, he varied not one jot from the details of that vividly conceived
+masterpiece of hellishness during the twenty years which followed.
+
+The little boy who so innocently played in the garden of his royal father
+was Prince Richard, the three-year-old son of Henry III of England.  No
+published history mentions this little lost prince; only the secret
+archives of the kings of England tell the story of his strange and
+adventurous life.  His name has been blotted from the records of men; and
+the revenge of De Vac has passed from the eyes of the world; though in his
+time it was a real and terrible thing in the hearts of the English.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+For nearly a month, the old man haunted the palace, and watched in the
+gardens for the little Prince until he knew the daily routine of his tiny
+life with his nurses and governesses.
+
+He saw that when the Lady Maud accompanied him, they were wont to repair to
+the farthermost extremities of the palace grounds where, by a little
+postern gate, she admitted a certain officer of the Guards to whom the
+Queen had forbidden the privilege of the court.
+
+There, in a secluded bower, the two lovers whispered their hopes and plans,
+unmindful of the royal charge playing neglected among the flowers and
+shrubbery of the garden.
+
+Toward the middle of July De Vac had his plans well laid.  He had managed
+to coax old Brus, the gardener, into letting him have the key to the little
+postern gate on the plea that he wished to indulge in a midnight escapade,
+hinting broadly of a fair lady who was to be the partner of his adventure,
+and, what was more to the point with Brus, at the same time slipping a
+couple of golden zecchins into the gardener's palm.
+
+Brus, like the other palace servants, considered De Vac a loyal retainer of
+the house of Plantagenet.  Whatever else of mischief De Vac might be up to,
+Brus was quite sure that in so far as the King was concerned, the key to
+the postern gate was as safe in De Vac's hands as though Henry himself had
+it.
+
+The old fellow wondered a little that the morose old master of fence
+should, at his time in life, indulge in frivolous escapades more befitting
+the younger sprigs of gentility, but, then, what concern was it of his ?
+Did he not have enough to think about to keep the gardens so that his royal
+master and mistress might find pleasure in the shaded walks, the well-kept
+sward, and the gorgeous beds of foliage plants and blooming flowers which
+he set with such wondrous precision in the formal garden ?
+
+Further, two gold zecchins were not often come by so easily as this; and if
+the dear Lord Jesus saw fit, in his infinite wisdom, to take this means of
+rewarding his poor servant, it ill became such a worm as he to ignore the
+divine favor.  So Brus took the gold zecchins and De Vac the key, and the
+little prince played happily among the flowers of his royal father's
+garden, and all were satisfied; which was as it should have been.
+
+That night, De Vac took the key to a locksmith on the far side of London;
+one who could not possibly know him or recognize the key as belonging to
+the palace.  Here he had a duplicate made, waiting impatiently while the
+old man fashioned it with the crude instruments of his time.
+
+From this little shop, De Vac threaded his way through the dirty lanes and
+alleys of ancient London, lighted at far intervals by an occasional smoky
+lantern, until he came to a squalid tenement but a short distance from the
+palace.
+
+A narrow alley ran past the building, ending abruptly at the bank of the
+Thames in a moldering wooden dock, beneath which the inky waters of the
+river rose and fell, lapping the decaying piles and surging far beneath the
+dock to the remote fastnesses inhabited by the great fierce dock rats and
+their fiercer human antitypes.
+
+Several times De Vac paced the length of this black alley in search of the
+little doorway of the building he sought.  At length he came upon it, and,
+after repeated pounding with the pommel of his sword, it was opened by a
+slatternly old hag.
+
+"What would ye of a decent woman at such an ungodly hour ?" she grumbled.
+"Ah, 'tis ye, my lord ?" she added, hastily, as the flickering rays of the
+candle she bore lighted up De Vac's face.  "Welcome, my Lord, thrice
+welcome.  The daughter of the devil welcomes her brother."
+
+"Silence, old hag," cried De Vac.  "Is it not enough that you leech me of
+good marks of such a quantity that you may ever after wear mantles of
+villosa and feast on simnel bread and malmsey, that you must needs burden
+me still further with the affliction of thy vile tongue ?
+
+"Hast thou the clothes ready bundled and the key, also, to this gate to
+perdition ?  And the room: didst set to rights the furnishings I had
+delivered here, and sweep the century-old accumulation of filth and cobwebs
+from the floor and rafters ?  Why, the very air reeked of the dead Romans
+who builded London twelve hundred years ago.  Methinks, too, from the
+stink, they must have been Roman swineherd who habited this sty with their
+herds, an' I venture that thou, old sow, hast never touched broom to the
+place for fear of disturbing the ancient relics of thy kin."
+
+"Cease thy babbling, Lord Satan," cried the woman.  "I would rather hear
+thy money talk than thou, for though it come accursed and tainted from thy
+rogue hand, yet it speaks with the same sweet and commanding voice as it
+were fresh from the coffers of the holy church.
+
+"The bundle is ready," she continued, closing the door after De Vac, who
+had now entered, "and here be the key; but first let us have a payment.  I
+know not what thy foul work may be, but foul it is I know from the secrecy
+which you have demanded, an' I dare say there will be some who would pay
+well to learn the whereabouts of the old woman and the child, thy sister
+and her son you tell me they be, who you are so anxious to hide away in old
+Til's garret.  So it be well for you, my Lord, to pay old Til well and add
+a few guilders for the peace of her tongue if you would that your prisoner
+find peace in old Til's house."
+
+"Fetch me the bundle, hag," replied De Vac, "and you shall have gold
+against a final settlement; more even than we bargained for if all goes
+well and thou holdest thy vile tongue."
+
+But the old woman's threats had already caused De Vac a feeling of
+uneasiness, which would have been reflected to an exaggerated degree in the
+old woman had she known the determination her words had caused in the mind
+of the old master of fence.
+
+His venture was far too serious, and the results of exposure too fraught
+with danger, to permit of his taking any chances with a disloyal
+fellow-conspirator.  True, he had not even hinted at the enormity of the
+plot in which he was involving the old woman, but, as she had said, his
+stern commands for secrecy had told enough to arouse her suspicions, and
+with them her curiosity and cupidity.  So it was that old Til might well
+have quailed in her tattered sandals had she but even vaguely guessed the
+thoughts which passed in De Vac's mind; but the extra gold pieces he
+dropped into her withered palm as she delivered the bundle to him, together
+with the promise of more, quite effectually won her loyalty and her silence
+for the time being.
+
+Slipping the key into the pocket of his tunic and covering the bundle with
+his long surcoat, De Vac stepped out into the darkness of the alley and
+hastened toward the dock.
+
+Beneath the planks.  he found a skiff which he had moored there earlier in
+the evening, and underneath one of the thwarts he hid the bundle.  Then,
+casting off, he rowed slowly up the Thames until, below the palace walls,
+he moored near to the little postern gate which let into the lower end of
+the garden.
+
+Hiding the skiff as best he could in some tangled bushes which grew to the
+water's edge, set there by order of the King to add to the beauty of the
+aspect from the river side, De Vac crept warily to the postern and,
+unchallenged, entered and sought his apartments in the palace.
+
+The next day, he returned the original key to Brus, telling the old man
+that he had not used it after all, since mature reflection had convinced
+him of the folly of his contemplated adventure, especially in one whose
+youth was past, and in whose joints the night damp of the Thames might find
+lodgement for rheumatism.
+
+"Ha, Sir Jules," laughed the old gardener, "Virtue and Vice be twin sisters
+who come running to do the bidding of the same father, Desire.  Were there
+no desire there would be no virtue, and because one man desires what
+another does not, who shall say whether the child of his desire be vice or
+virtue ?  Or on the other hand if my friend desires his own wife and if
+that be virtue, then if I also desire his wife, is not that likewise
+virtue, since we desire the same thing ?  But if to obtain our desire it be
+necessary to expose our joints to the Thames' fog, then it were virtue to
+remain at home."
+
+"Right you sound, old mole," said De Vac, smiling, "would that I might
+learn to reason by your wondrous logic; methinks it might stand me in good
+stead before I be much older."
+
+"The best sword arm in all Christendom needs no other logic than the sword,
+I should think," said Brus, returning to his work.
+
+That afternoon, De Vac stood in a window of the armory looking out upon the
+beautiful garden which spread before him to the river wall two hundred
+yards away.  In the foreground were box-bordered walks, smooth, sleek
+lawns, and formal beds of gorgeous flowering plants, while here and there
+marble statues of wood nymph and satyr gleamed, sparkling in the brilliant
+sunlight, or, half shaded by an overhanging bush, took on a semblance of
+life from the riotous play of light and shadow as the leaves above them
+moved to and fro in the faint breeze.  Farther in the distance, the river
+wall was hidden by more closely massed bushes, and the formal, geometric
+precision of the nearer view was relieved by a background of vine-colored
+bowers, and a profusion of small trees and flowering shrubs arranged in
+studied disorder.
+
+Through this seeming jungle ran tortuous paths, and the carved stone
+benches of the open garden gave place to rustic seats, and swings suspended
+from the branches of fruit trees.
+
+Toward this enchanting spot slowly were walking the Lady Maud and her
+little charge, Prince Richard; all ignorant of the malicious watcher in the
+window behind them.
+
+A great peacock strutted proudly across the walk before them, and, as
+Richard ran, childlike, after it, Lady Maud hastened on to the little
+postern gate which she quickly unlocked, admitting her lover, who had been
+waiting without.  Relocking the gate the two strolled arm in arm to the
+little bower which was their trysting place.
+
+As the lovers talked, all self-engrossed, the little Prince played happily
+about among the trees and flowers, and none saw the stern, determined face
+which peered through the foliage at a little distance from the playing boy.
+
+Richard was devoting his royal energies to chasing an elusive butterfly
+which fate led nearer and nearer to the cold, hard watcher in the bushes.
+Closer and closer came the little Prince, and in another moment, he had
+burst through the flowering shrubs, and stood facing the implacable master
+of fence.
+
+"Your Highness," said De Vac, bowing to the little fellow, "let old DeVac
+help you catch the pretty insect."
+
+Richard, having often seen De Vac, did not fear him, and so together they
+started in pursuit of the butterfly which by now had passed out of sight.
+De Vac turned their steps toward the little postern gate, but when he would
+have passed through with the tiny Prince, the latter rebelled.
+
+"Come, My Lord Prince," urged De Vac, "methinks the butterfly did but
+alight without the wall, we can have it and return within the garden in an
+instant."
+
+"Go thyself and fetch it," replied the Prince; "the King, my father, has
+forbid me stepping without the palace grounds."
+
+"Come," commanded De Vac, more sternly, "no harm can come to you."
+
+But the child hung back and would not go with him so that De Vac was forced
+to grasp him roughly by the arm.  There was a cry of rage and alarm from
+the royal child.
+
+"Unhand me, sirrah," screamed the boy.  "How dare you lay hands on a prince
+of England ?"
+
+De Vac clapped his hand over the child's mouth to still his cries, but it
+was too late.  The Lady Maud and her lover had heard and, in an instant,
+they were rushing toward the postern gate, the officer drawing his sword as
+he ran.
+
+When they reached the wall, De Vac and the Prince were upon the outside,
+and the Frenchman had closed and was endeavoring to lock the gate.  But,
+handicapped by the struggling boy, he had not time to turn the key before
+the officer threw himself against the panels and burst out before the
+master of fence, closely followed by the Lady Maud.
+
+De Vac dropped the key and, still grasping the now thoroughly affrightened
+Prince with his left hand, drew his sword and confronted the officer.
+
+There were no words, there was no need of words; De Vac's intentions were
+too plain to necessitate any parley, so the two fell upon each other with
+grim fury; the brave officer facing the best swordsman that France had ever
+produced in a futile attempt to rescue his young prince.
+
+In a moment, De Vac had disarmed him, but, contrary to the laws of
+chivalry, he did not lower his point until it had first plunged through the
+heart of his brave antagonist.  Then, with a bound, he leaped between Lady
+Maud and the gate, so that she could not retreat into the garden and give
+the alarm.
+
+Still grasping the trembling child in his iron grip, he stood facing the
+lady in waiting, his back against the door.
+
+"Mon Dieu, Sir Jules," she cried, "hast thou gone mad ?"
+
+"No, My Lady," he answered, "but I had not thought to do the work which now
+lies before me.  Why didst thou not keep a still tongue in thy head and let
+his patron saint look after the welfare of this princeling ?  Your rashness
+has brought you to a pretty pass, for it must be either you or I, My Lady,
+and it cannot be I.  Say thy prayers and compose thyself for death."
+
+Henry III, King of England, sat in his council chamber surrounded by the
+great lords and nobles who composed his suit.  He awaited Simon de
+Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whom he had summoned that he might heap still
+further indignities upon him with the intention of degrading and
+humiliating him that he might leave England forever.  The King feared this
+mighty kinsman who so boldly advised him against the weak follies which
+were bringing his kingdom to a condition of revolution.
+
+What the outcome of this audience would have been none may say, for
+Leicester had but just entered and saluted his sovereign when there came an
+interruption which drowned the petty wrangles of king and courtier in a
+common affliction that touched the hearts of all.
+
+There was a commotion at one side of the room, the arras parted, and
+Eleanor, Queen of England, staggered toward the throne, tears streaming
+down her pale cheeks.
+
+"Oh, My Lord !  My Lord !' she cried, "Richard, our son, has been
+assassinated and thrown into the Thames."
+
+In an instant, all was confusion and turmoil, and it was with the greatest
+difficulty that the King finally obtained a coherent statement from his
+queen.
+
+It seemed that when the Lady Maud had not returned to the palace with
+Prince Richard at the proper time, the Queen had been notified and an
+immediate search had been instituted -- a search which did not end for over
+twenty years; but the first fruits of it turned the hearts of the court to
+stone, for there beside the open postern gate lay the dead bodies of Lady
+Maud and a certain officer of the Guards, but nowhere was there a sign or
+trace of Prince Richard, second son of Henry III of England, and at that
+time the youngest prince of the realm.
+
+It was two days before the absence of De Vac was noted, and then it was
+that one of the lords in waiting to the King reminded his majesty of the
+episode of the fencing bout, and a motive for the abduction of the King's
+little son became apparent.
+
+An edict was issued requiring the examination of every child in England,
+for on the left breast of the little Prince was a birthmark which closely
+resembled a lily and, when after a year no child was found bearing such a
+mark and no trace of De Vac uncovered, the search was carried into France,
+nor was it ever wholly relinquished at any time for more than twenty years.
+
+The first theory, of assassination, was quickly abandoned when it was
+subjected to the light of reason, for it was evident that an assassin could
+have dispatched the little Prince at the same time that he killed the Lady
+Maud and her lover, had such been his desire.
+
+The most eager factor in the search for Prince Richard was Simon de
+Montfort, Earl of Leicester, whose affection for his royal nephew had
+always been so marked as to have been commented upon by the members of the
+King's household.
+
+Thus for a time the rupture between De Montfort and his king was healed,
+and although the great nobleman was divested of his authority in Gascony,
+he suffered little further oppression at the hands of his royal master.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+As De Vac drew his sword from the heart of the Lady Maud, he winced, for,
+merciless though he was, he had shrunk from this cruel task.  Too far he
+had gone, however, to back down now, and, had he left the Lady Maud alive,
+the whole of the palace guard and all the city of London would have been on
+his heels in ten minutes; there would have been no escape.
+
+The little Prince was now so terrified that he could but tremble and
+whimper in his fright.  So fearful was he of the terrible De Vac that a
+threat of death easily stilled his tongue, and so the grim, old man led him
+to the boat hidden deep in the dense bushes.
+
+De Vac did not dare remain in this retreat until dark, as he had first
+intended.  Instead, he drew a dingy, ragged dress from the bundle beneath
+the thwart and in this disguised himself as an old woman, drawing a cotton
+wimple low over his head and forehead to hide his short hair.  Concealing
+the child beneath the other articles of clothing, he pushed off from the
+bank, and, rowing close to the shore, hastened down the Thames toward the
+old dock where, the previous night, he had concealed his skiff.  He reached
+his destination unnoticed, and, running in beneath the dock, worked the
+boat far into the dark recess of the cave-like retreat.
+
+Here he determined to hide until darkness had fallen, for he knew that the
+search would be on for the little lost Prince at any moment, and that none
+might traverse the streets of London without being subject to the closest
+scrutiny.
+
+Taking advantage of the forced wait, De Vac undressed the Prince and
+clothed him in other garments, which had been wrapped in the bundle hidden
+beneath the thwart; a little red cotton tunic with hose to match, a black
+doublet and a tiny leather jerkin and leather cap.
+
+The discarded clothing of the Prince he wrapped about a huge stone torn
+from the disintegrating masonry of the river wall, and consigned the bundle
+to the voiceless river.
+
+The Prince had by now regained some of his former assurance and, finding
+that De Vac seemed not to intend harming him, the little fellow commenced
+questioning his grim companion, his childish wonder at this strange
+adventure getting the better of his former apprehension.
+
+"What do we here, Sir Jules ?" he asked.  "Take me back to the King's, my
+father's palace.  I like not this dark hole nor the strange garments you
+have placed upon me."
+
+"Silence, boy !" commanded the old man.  "Sir Jules be dead, nor are you a
+king's son.  Remember these two things well, nor ever again let me hear you
+speak the name Sir Jules, or call yourself a prince."
+
+The boy went silent, again cowed by the fierce tone of his captor.
+Presently he began to whimper, for he was tired and hungry and
+frightened -- just a poor little baby, helpless and hopeless in the hands
+of this cruel enemy -- all his royalty as nothing, all gone with the silken
+finery which lay in the thick mud at the bottom of the Thames, and
+presently he dropped into a fitful sleep in the bottom of the skiff.
+
+When darkness had settled, De Vac pushed the skiff outward to the side of
+the dock and, gathering the sleeping child in his arms, stood listening,
+preparatory to mounting to the alley which led to old Til's place.
+
+As he stood thus, a faint sound of clanking armor came to his attentive
+ears; louder and louder it grew until there could be no doubt but that a
+number of men were approaching.
+
+De Vac resumed his place in the skiff, and again drew it far beneath the
+dock.  Scarcely had he done so ere a party of armored knights and
+men-at-arms clanked out upon the planks above him from the mouth of the
+dark alley.  Here they stopped as though for consultation and plainly could
+the listener below hear every word of their conversation.
+
+"De Montfort," said one, "what thinkest thou of it ?  Can it be that the
+Queen is right and that Richard lies dead beneath these black waters ?"
+
+"No, De Clare," replied a deep voice, which De Vac recognized as that of
+the Earl of Leicester.  "The hand that could steal the Prince from out of
+the very gardens of his sire without the knowledge of Lady Maud or her
+companion, which must evidently have been the case, could more easily and
+safely have dispatched him within the gardens had that been the object of
+this strange attack.  I think, My Lord, that presently we shall hear from
+some bold adventurer who holds the little Prince for ransom.  God give that
+such may be the case, for of all the winsome and affectionate little
+fellows I have ever seen, not even excepting mine own dear son, the little
+Richard was the most to be beloved.  Would that I might get my hands upon
+the foul devil who has done this horrid deed."
+
+Beneath the planks, not four feet from where Leicester stood, lay the
+object of his search.  The clanking armor, the heavy spurred feet, and the
+voices above him had awakened the little Prince and, with a startled cry,
+he sat upright in the bottom of the skiff.  Instantly De Vac's iron band
+clapped over the tiny mouth, but not before a single faint wail had reached
+the ears of the men above.
+
+"Hark !  What was that, My Lord ?" cried one of the men-at-arms.
+
+In tense silence they listened for a repetition of the sound and then De
+Montfort cried out:
+
+"What ho, below there !  Who is it beneath the dock ?  Answer, in the name
+of the King !"
+
+Richard, recognizing the voice of his favorite uncle, struggled to free
+himself, but De Vac's ruthless hand crushed out the weak efforts of the
+babe, and all was quiet as the tomb, while those above stood listening for
+a repetition of the sound.
+
+"Dock rats," said De Clare, and then as though the devil guided them to
+protect his own, two huge rats scurried upward from between the loose
+boards, and ran squealing up the dark alley.
+
+"Right you are," said De Montfort, "but I could have sworn 'twas a child's
+feeble wail had I not seen the two filthy rodents with mine own eyes.
+Come, let us to the next vile alley.  We have met with no success here,
+though that old hag who called herself Til seemed overanxious to bargain
+for the future information she seemed hopeful of being able to give us."
+
+As they moved off, their voices grew fainter in the ears of the listeners
+beneath the dock and soon were lost in the distance.
+
+"A close shave," thought De Vac, as he again took up the child and prepared
+to gain the dock.  No further noises occurring to frighten him, he soon
+reached the door to Til's house and, inserting the key, crept noiselessly
+to the garret room which he had rented from his ill-favored hostess.
+
+There were no stairs from the upper floor to the garret above, this ascent
+being made by means of a wooden ladder which De Vac pulled up after him,
+closing and securing the aperture, through which he climbed with his
+burden, by means of a heavy trapdoor equipped with thick bars.
+
+The apartment which they now entered extended across the entire east end of
+the building, and had windows upon three sides.  These were heavily
+curtained.  The apartment was lighted by a small cresset hanging from a
+rafter near the center of the room.
+
+The walls were unplastered and the rafters unceiled; the whole bearing a
+most barnlike and unhospitable appearance.
+
+In one corner was a huge bed, and across the room a smaller cot; a
+cupboard, a table, and two benches completed the furnishings.  These
+articles De Vac had purchased for the room against the time when he should
+occupy it with his little prisoner.
+
+On the table were a loaf of black bread, an earthenware jar containing
+honey, a pitcher of milk and two drinking horns.  To these, De Vac
+immediately gave his attention, commanding the child to partake of what he
+wished.
+
+Hunger for the moment overcame the little Prince's fears, and he set to
+with avidity upon the strange, rough fare, made doubly coarse by the rude
+utensils and the bare surroundings, so unlike the royal magnificence of his
+palace apartments.
+
+While the child ate, De Vac hastened to the lower floor of the building in
+search of Til, whom he now thoroughly mistrusted and feared.  The words of
+De Montfort, which he had overheard at the dock, convinced him that here
+was one more obstacle to the fulfillment of his revenge which must be
+removed as had the Lady Maud; but in this instance there was neither youth
+nor beauty to plead the cause of the intended victim, or to cause the grim
+executioner a pang of remorse.
+
+When he found the old hag, she was already dressed to go upon the street,
+in fact he intercepted her at the very door of the building.  Still clad as
+he was in the mantle and wimple of an old woman, Til did not, at first,
+recognize him, and when he spoke, she burst into a nervous, cackling laugh,
+as one caught in the perpetration of some questionable act, nor did her
+manner escape the shrewd notice of the wily master of fence.
+
+"Whither, old hag ?" he asked.
+
+"To visit Mag Tunk at the alley's end, by the river, My Lord," she replied,
+with more respect than she had been wont to accord him.
+
+"Then, I will accompany you part way, my friend, and, perchance, you can
+give me a hand with some packages I left behind me in the skiff I have
+moored there."
+
+And so the two walked together through the dark alley to the end of the
+rickety, dismantled dock; the one thinking of the vast reward the King
+would lavish upon her for the information she felt sure she alone could
+give; the other feeling beneath his mantle for the hilt of a long dagger
+which nestled there.
+
+As they reached the water's edge, De Vac was walking with his right
+shoulder behind his companion's left, in his hand was gripped the keen
+blade and, as the woman halted on the dock, the point that hovered just
+below her left shoulder-blade plunged, soundless, into her heart at the
+same instant that De Vac's left hand swung up and grasped her throat in a
+grip of steel.
+
+There was no sound, barely a struggle of the convulsively stiffening old
+muscles, and then, with a push from De Vac, the body lunged forward into
+the Thames, where a dull splash marked the end of the last hope that Prince
+Richard might be rescued from the clutches of his Nemesis.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+For three years following the disappearance of Prince Richard, a bent old
+woman lived in the heart of London within a stone's throw of the King's
+palace.  In a small back room she lived, high up in the attic of an old
+building, and with her was a little boy who never went abroad alone, nor by
+day.  And upon his left breast was a strange mark which resembled a lily.
+When the bent old woman was safely in her attic room, with bolted door
+behind her, she was wont to straighten up, and discard her dingy mantle for
+more comfortable and becoming doublet and hose.
+
+For years, she worked assiduously with the little boy's education.  There
+were three subjects in her curriculum; French, swordsmanship and hatred of
+all things English, especially the reigning house of England.
+
+The old woman had had made a tiny foil and had commenced teaching the
+little boy the art of fence when he was but three years old.
+
+"You will be the greatest swordsman in the world when you are twenty, my
+son," she was wont to say, "and then you shall go out and kill many
+Englishmen.  Your name shall be hated and cursed the length and breadth of
+England, and when you finally stand with the halter about your neck, aha,
+then will I speak.  Then shall they know."
+
+The little boy did not understand it all, he only knew that he was
+comfortable, and had warm clothing, and all he required to eat, and that he
+would be a great man when he learned to fight with a real sword, and had
+grown large enough to wield one.  He also knew that he hated Englishmen,
+but why, he did not know.
+
+Way back in the uttermost recesses of his little, childish head, he seemed
+to remember a time when his life and surroundings had been very different;
+when, instead of this old woman, there had been many people around him, and
+a sweet faced woman had held him in her arms and kissed him, before he was
+taken off to bed at night; but he could not be sure, maybe it was only a
+dream he remembered, for he dreamed many strange and wonderful dreams.
+
+When the little boy was about six years of age, a strange man came to their
+attic home to visit the little old woman.  It was in the dusk of the
+evening but the old woman did not light the cresset, and further, she
+whispered to the little boy to remain in the shadows of a far corner of the
+bare chamber.
+
+The stranger was old and bent and had a great beard which hid almost his
+entire face except for two piercing eyes, a great nose and a bit of
+wrinkled forehead.  When he spoke, he accompanied his words with many
+shrugs of his narrow shoulders and with waving of his arms and other
+strange and amusing gesticulations.  The child was fascinated.  Here was
+the first amusement of his little starved life.  He listened intently to
+the conversation, which was in French.
+
+"I have just the thing for madame," the stranger was saying.  "It be a
+noble and stately hall far from the beaten way.  It was built in the old
+days by Harold the Saxon, but in later times, death and poverty and the
+disfavor of the King have wrested it from his descendants.  A few years
+since, Henry granted it to that spend-thrift favorite of his, Henri de
+Macy, who pledged it to me for a sum he hath been unable to repay.  Today
+it be my property, and as it be far from Paris, you may have it for the
+mere song I have named.  It be a wondrous bargain, madame."
+
+"And when I come upon it, I shall find that I have bought a crumbling pile
+of ruined masonry, unfit to house a family of foxes," replied the old woman
+peevishly.
+
+"One tower hath fallen, and the roof for half the length of one wing hath
+sagged and tumbled in," explained the old Frenchman.  "But the three lower
+stories be intact and quite habitable.  It be much grander even now than
+the castles of many of England's noble barons, and the price, madame ---
+ah, the price be so ridiculously low."
+
+Still the old woman hesitated.
+
+"Come," said the Frenchman, "I have it.  Deposit the money with Isaac the
+Jew -- thou knowest him ?  -- and he shall hold it together with the deed
+for forty days, which will give thee ample time to travel to Derby and
+inspect thy purchase.  If thou be not entirely satisfied, Isaac the Jew
+shall return thy money to thee and the deed to me, but if at the end of
+forty days thou hast not made demand for thy money, then shall Isaac send
+the deed to thee and the money to me.  Be not this an easy and fair way out
+of the difficulty ?"
+
+The little old woman thought for a moment and at last conceded that it
+seemed quite a fair way to arrange the matter.  And thus it was
+accomplished.
+
+Several days later, the little old woman called the child to her.
+
+"We start tonight upon a long journey to our new home.  Thy face shall be
+wrapped in many rags, for thou hast a most grievous toothache.  Dost
+understand ?"
+
+"But I have no toothache.  My teeth do not pain me at all.  I -- "
+expostulated the child.
+
+"Tut, tut," interrupted the little old woman.  "Thou hast a toothache, and
+so thy face must be wrapped in many rags.  And listen, should any ask thee
+upon the way why thy face be so wrapped, thou art to say that thou hast a
+toothache.  And thou do not do as I say, the King's men will take us and we
+shall be hanged, for the King hateth us.  If thou hatest the English King
+and lovest thy life do as I command."
+
+"I hate the King," replied the little boy.  "For this reason I shall do as
+thou sayest."
+
+So it was that they set out that night upon their long journey north toward
+the hills of Derby.  For many days they travelled, riding upon two small
+donkeys.  Strange sights filled the days for the little boy who remembered
+nothing outside the bare attic of his London home and the dirty London
+alleys that he had traversed only by night.
+
+They wound across beautiful parklike meadows and through dark, forbidding
+forests, and now and again they passed tiny hamlets of thatched huts.
+Occasionally they saw armored knights upon the highway, alone or in small
+parties, but the child's companion always managed to hasten into cover at
+the road side until the grim riders had passed.
+
+Once, as they lay in hiding in a dense wood beside a little open glade
+across which the road wound, the boy saw two knights enter the glade from
+either side.  For a moment, they drew rein and eyed each other in silence,
+and then one, a great black mailed knight upon a black charger, cried out
+something to the other which the boy could not catch.  The other knight
+made no response other than to rest his lance upon his thigh and with
+lowered point, ride toward his ebon adversary.  For a dozen paces their
+great steeds trotted slowly toward one another, but presently the knights
+urged them into full gallop, and when the two iron men on their iron
+trapped chargers came together in the center of the glade, it was with all
+the terrific impact of full charge.
+
+The lance of the black knight smote full upon the linden shield of his
+foeman, the staggering weight of the mighty black charger hurtled upon the
+gray, who went down with his rider into the dust of the highway.  The
+momentum of the black carried him fifty paces beyond the fallen horseman
+before his rider could rein him in, then the black knight turned to view
+the havoc he had wrought.  The gray horse was just staggering dizzily to
+his feet, but his mailed rider lay quiet and still where he had fallen.
+
+With raised visor, the black knight rode back to the side of his vanquished
+foe.  There was a cruel smile upon his lips as he leaned toward the
+prostrate form.  He spoke tauntingly, but there was no response, then he
+prodded the fallen man with the point of his spear.  Even this elicited no
+movement.  With a shrug of his iron clad shoulders, the black knight
+wheeled and rode on down the road until he had disappeared from sight
+within the gloomy shadows of the encircling forest.
+
+The little boy was spell-bound.  Naught like this had he ever seen or
+dreamed.
+
+"Some day thou shalt go and do likewise, my son," said the little old
+woman.
+
+"Shall I be clothed in armor and ride upon a great black steed ?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, and thou shalt ride the highways of England with thy stout lance and
+mighty sword, and behind thee thou shalt leave a trail of blood and death,
+for every man shalt be thy enemy.  But come, we must be on our way."
+
+They rode on, leaving the dead knight where he had fallen, but always in
+his memory the child carried the thing that he had seen, longing for the
+day when he should be great and strong like the formidable black knight.
+
+On another day, as they were biding in a deserted hovel to escape the
+notice of a caravan of merchants journeying up-country with their wares,
+they saw a band of ruffians rush out from the concealing shelter of some
+bushes at the far side of the highway and fall upon the surprised and
+defenseless tradesmen.
+
+Ragged, bearded, uncouth villains they were, armed mostly with bludgeons
+and daggers, with here and there a cross-bow.  Without mercy they attacked
+the old and the young, beating them down in cold blood even when they
+offered no resistance.  Those of the caravan who could, escaped, the
+balance the highwaymen left dead or dying in the road, as they hurried away
+with their loot.
+
+At first the child was horror-struck, but when he turned to the little old
+woman for sympathy he found a grim smile upon her thin lips.  She noted his
+expression of dismay.
+
+"It is naught, my son.  But English curs setting upon English swine.  Some
+day thou shalt set upon both -- they be only fit for killing."
+
+The boy made no reply, but he thought a great deal about that which he had
+seen.  Knights were cruel to knights -- the poor were cruel to the rich --
+and every day of the journey had forced upon his childish mind that
+everyone must be very cruel and hard upon the poor.  He had seen them in
+all their sorrow and misery and poverty -- stretching a long, scattering
+line all the way from London town.  Their bent backs, their poor thin
+bodies and their hopeless, sorrowful faces attesting the weary wretchedness
+of their existence.
+
+"Be no one happy in all the world ?" he once broke out to the old woman.
+
+"Only he who wields the mightiest sword," responded the old woman.  "You
+have seen, my son, that all Englishmen are beasts.  They set upon and kill
+one another for little provocation or for no provocation at all.  When thou
+shalt be older, thou shalt go forth and kill them all for unless thou kill
+them, they will kill thee."
+
+At length, after tiresome days upon the road, they came to a little hamlet
+in the hills.  Here the donkeys were disposed of and a great horse
+purchased, upon which the two rode far up into a rough and uninviting
+country away from the beaten track, until late one evening they approached
+a ruined castle.
+
+The frowning walls towered high against the moonlit sky beyond, and where a
+portion of the roof had fallen in, the cold moon, shining through the
+narrow unglazed windows, gave to the mighty pile the likeness of a huge,
+many-eyed ogre crouching upon the flank of a deserted world, for nowhere
+was there other sign of habitation.
+
+Before this somber pile, the two dismounted.  The little boy was filled
+with awe and his childish imagination ran riot as they approached the
+crumbling barbican on foot, leading the horse after them.  From the dark
+shadows of the ballium, they passed into the moonlit inner court.  At the
+far end the old woman found the ancient stables, and here, with decaying
+planks, she penned the horse for the night, pouring a measure of oats upon
+the floor for him from a bag which had bung across his rump.
+
+Then she led the way into the dense shadows of the castle, lighting their
+advance with a flickering pine knot.  The old planking of the floors, long
+unused, groaned and rattled beneath their approach.  There was a sudden
+scamper of clawed feet before them, and a red fox dashed by in a frenzy of
+alarm toward the freedom of the outer night.
+
+Presently they came to the great hall.  The old woman pushed open the great
+doors upon their creaking hinges and lit up dimly the mighty, cavernous
+interior with the puny rays of their feeble torch.  As they stepped
+cautiously within, an impalpable dust arose in little spurts from the
+long-rotted rushes that crumbled beneath their feet.  A huge bat circled
+wildly with loud fluttering wings in evident remonstrance at this rude
+intrusion.  Strange creatures of the night scurried or wriggled across wall
+and floor.
+
+But the child was unafraid.  Fear had not been a part of the old woman's
+curriculum.  The boy did not know the meaning of the word, nor was he ever
+in his after-life to experience the sensation.  With childish eagerness, he
+followed his companion as she inspected the interior of the chamber.  It
+was still an imposing room.  The boy clapped his hands in delight at the
+beauties of the carved and panelled walls and the oak beamed ceiling,
+stained almost black from the smoke of torches and oil cressets that had
+lighted it in bygone days, aided, no doubt, by the wood fires which had
+burned in its two immense fireplaces to cheer the merry throng of noble
+revellers that had so often sat about the great table into the morning
+hours.
+
+Here they took up their abode.  But the bent, old woman was no longer an
+old woman -- she had become a straight, wiry, active old man.
+
+The little boy's education went on -- French, swordsmanship and hatred of
+the English -- the same thing year after year with the addition of
+horsemanship after he was ten years old.  At this time the old man
+commenced teaching him to speak English, but with a studied and very marked
+French accent.  During all his life now, he could not remember of having
+spoken to any living being other than his guardian, whom he had been taught
+to address as father.  Nor did the boy have any name -- he was just "my
+son."
+
+His life in the Derby hills was so filled with the hard, exacting duties of
+his education that he had little time to think of the strange loneliness of
+his existence; nor is it probable that he missed that companionship of
+others of his own age of which, never having had experience in it, he could
+scarce be expected to regret or yearn for.
+
+At fifteen, the youth was a magnificent swordsman and horseman, and with an
+utter contempt for pain or danger -- a contempt which was the result of the
+heroic methods adopted by the little old man in the training of him.  Often
+the two practiced with razor-sharp swords, and without armor or other
+protection of any description.
+
+"Thus only," the old man was wont to say, "mayst thou become the absolute
+master of thy blade.  Of such a nicety must be thy handling of the weapon
+that thou mayst touch an antagonist at will and so lightly, shouldst thou
+desire, that thy point, wholly under the control of a master hand, mayst be
+stopped before it inflicts so much as a scratch."
+
+But in practice, there were many accidents, and then one or both of them
+would nurse a punctured skin for a few days.  So, while blood was often let
+on both sides, the training produced a fearless swordsman who was so truly
+the master of his point that he could stop a thrust within a fraction of an
+inch of the spot he sought.
+
+At fifteen, he was a very strong and straight and handsome lad.  Bronzed
+and hardy from his outdoor life; of few words, for there was none that he
+might talk with save the taciturn old man; hating the English, for that he
+was taught as thoroughly as swordsmanship; speaking French fluently and
+English poorly -- and waiting impatiently for the day when the old man
+should send him out into the world with clanking armor and lance and shield
+to do battle with the knights of England.
+
+It was about this time that there occurred the first important break in the
+monotony of his existence.  Far down the rocky trail that led from the
+valley below through the Derby hills to the ruined castle, three armored
+knights urged their tired horses late one afternoon of a chill autumn day.
+Off the main road and far from any habitation, they had espied the castle's
+towers through a rift in the hills, and now they spurred toward it in
+search of food and shelter.
+
+As the road led them winding higher into the hills, they suddenly emerged
+upon the downs below the castle where a sight met their eyes which caused
+them to draw rein and watch in admiration.  There, before them upon the
+downs, a boy battled with a lunging, rearing horse -- a perfect demon of a
+black horse.  Striking and biting in a frenzy of rage, it sought ever to
+escape or injure the lithe figure which clung leech-like to its shoulder.
+
+The boy was on the ground.  His left hand grasped the heavy mane; his right
+arm lay across the beast's withers and his right hand drew steadily in upon
+a halter rope with which he had taken a half hitch about the horse's
+muzzle.  Now the black reared and wheeled, striking and biting, full upon
+the youth, but the active figure swung with him -- always just behind the
+giant shoulder -- and ever and ever he drew the great arched neck farther
+and farther to the right.
+
+As the animal plunged hither and thither in great leaps, he dragged the boy
+with him, but all his mighty efforts were unavailing to loosen the grip
+upon mane and withers.  Suddenly, he reared straight into the air carrying
+the youth with him, then with a vicious lunge he threw himself backward
+upon the ground.
+
+"It's death !" exclaimed one of the knights, "he will kill the youth yet,
+Beauchamp."
+
+"No !" cried he addressed.  "Look !  He is up again and the boy still
+clings as tightly to him as his own black hide."
+
+"'Tis true," exclaimed another, "but he hath lost what he had gained upon
+the halter -- he must needs fight it all out again from the beginning."
+
+And so the battle went on again as before, the boy again drawing the iron
+neck slowly to the right -- the beast fighting and squealing as though
+possessed of a thousand devils.  A dozen times, as the head bent farther
+and farther toward him, the boy loosed his hold upon the mane and reached
+quickly down to grasp the near fore pastern.  A dozen times the horse shook
+off the new hold, but at length the boy was successful, and the knee was
+bent and the hoof drawn up to the elbow.
+
+Now the black fought at a disadvantage, for he was on but three feet and
+his neck was drawn about in an awkward and unnatural position.  His efforts
+became weaker and weaker.  The boy talked incessantly to him in a quiet
+voice, and there was a shadow of a smile upon his lips.  Now he bore
+heavily upon the black withers, pulling the horse toward him.  Slowly the
+beast sank upon his bent knee -- pulling backward until his off fore leg
+was stretched straight before him.  Then, with a final surge, the youth
+pulled him over upon his side, and, as he fell, slipped prone beside him.
+One sinewy hand shot to the rope just beneath the black chin -- the other
+grasped a slim, pointed ear.
+
+For a few minutes the horse fought and kicked to gain his liberty, but with
+his head held to the earth, he was as powerless in the hands of the boy as
+a baby would have been.  Then he sank panting and exhausted into mute
+surrender.
+
+"Well done !" cried one of the knights.  "Simon de Montfort himself never
+mastered a horse in better order, my boy.  Who be thou ?"
+
+In an instant, the lad was upon his feet his eyes searching for the
+speaker.  The horse, released, sprang up also, and the two stood -- the
+handsome boy and the beautiful black -- gazing with startled eyes, like two
+wild things, at the strange intruder who confronted them.
+
+"Come, Sir Mortimer !" cried the boy, and turning he led the prancing but
+subdued animal toward the castle and through the ruined barbican into the
+court beyond.
+
+"What ho, there, lad !" shouted Paul of Merely.  "We wouldst not harm
+thee -- come, we but ask the way to the castle of De Stutevill."
+
+The three knights listened but there was no answer.
+
+"Come, Sir Knights," spoke Paul of Merely, "we will ride within and learn
+what manner of churls inhabit this ancient rookery."
+
+As they entered the great courtyard, magnificent even in its ruined
+grandeur, they were met by a little, grim old man who asked them in no
+gentle tones what they would of them there.
+
+"We have lost our way in these devilish Derby hills of thine, old man,"
+replied Paul of Merely.  "We seek the castle of Sir John de Stutevill."
+
+"Ride down straight to the river road, keeping the first trail to the
+right, and when thou hast come there, turn again to thy right and ride
+north beside the river -- thou canst not miss the way -- it be plain as the
+nose before thy face," and with that the old man turned to enter the
+castle.
+
+"Hold, old fellow !" cried the spokesman.  "It be nigh onto sunset now, and
+we care not to sleep out again this night as we did the last.  We will
+tarry with you then till morn that we may take up our journey refreshed,
+upon rested steeds."
+
+The old man grumbled, and it was with poor grace that he took them in to
+feed and house them over night.  But there was nothing else for it, since
+they would have taken his hospitality by force had he refused to give it
+voluntarily.
+
+From their guests, the two learned something of the conditions outside
+their Derby hills.  The old man showed less interest than he felt, but to
+the boy, notwithstanding that the names he heard meant nothing to him, it
+was like unto a fairy tale to hear of the wondrous doings of earl and
+baron, bishop and king.
+
+"If the King does not mend his ways," said one of the knights, "we will
+drive his whole accursed pack of foreign blood-suckers into the sea."
+
+"De Montfort has told him as much a dozen times, and now that all of us,
+both Norman and Saxon barons, have already met together and formed a pact
+for our mutual protection, the King must surely realize that the time for
+temporizing be past, and that unless he would have a civil war upon his
+hands, he must keep the promises he so glibly makes, instead of breaking
+them the moment De Montfort's back be turned."
+
+"He fears his brother-in-law," interrupted another of the knights, "even
+more than the devil fears holy water.  I was in attendance on his majesty
+some weeks since when he was going down the Thames upon the royal barge.
+We were overtaken by as severe a thunder storm as I have ever seen, of
+which the King was in such abject fear that he commanded that we land at
+the Bishop of Durham's palace opposite which we then were.  De Montfort,
+who was residing there, came to meet Henry, with all due respect,
+observing, 'What do you fear, now, Sire, the tempest has passed ?' And what
+thinkest thou old 'waxen heart' replied ?  Why, still trembling, he said,
+'I do indeed fear thunder and lightning much, but, by the hand of God, I
+tremble before you more than for all the thunder in Heaven !'"
+
+"I surmise," interjected the grim, old man, "that De Montfort has in some
+manner gained an ascendancy over the King.  Think you he looks so high as
+the throne itself ?"
+
+"Not so," cried the oldest of the knights.  "Simon de Montfort works for
+England's weal alone -- and methinks, nay knowest, that he would be first
+to spring to arms to save the throne for Henry.  He but fights the King's
+rank and covetous advisers, and though he must needs seem to defy the King
+himself, it be but to save his tottering power from utter collapse.  But,
+gad, how the King hates him.  For a time it seemed that there might be a
+permanent reconciliation when, for years after the disappearance of the
+little Prince Richard, De Montfort devoted much of his time and private
+fortune to prosecuting a search through all the world for the little
+fellow, of whom he was inordinately fond.  This self-sacrificing interest
+on his part won over the King and Queen for many years, but of late his
+unremitting hostility to their continued extravagant waste of the national
+resources has again hardened them toward him."
+
+The old man, growing uneasy at the turn the conversation threatened, sent
+the youth from the room on some pretext, and himself left to prepare
+supper.
+
+As they were sitting at the evening meal, one of the nobles eyed the boy
+intently, for he was indeed good to look upon; his bright handsome face,
+clear, intelligent gray eyes, and square strong jaw framed in a mass of
+brown waving hair banged at the forehead and falling about his ears, where
+it was again cut square at the sides and back, after the fashion of the
+times.
+
+His upper body was clothed in a rough under tunic of wool, stained red,
+over which he wore a short leathern jerkin, while his doublet was also of
+leather, a soft and finely tanned piece of undressed doeskin.  His long
+hose, fitting his shapely legs as closely as another layer of skin, were of
+the same red wool as his tunic, while his strong leather sandals were
+cross-gartered halfway to his knees with narrow bands of leather.
+
+A leathern girdle about his waist supported a sword and a dagger and a
+round skull cap of the same material, to which was fastened a falcon's
+wing, completed his picturesque and becoming costume.
+
+"Your son ?" he asked, turning to the old man.
+
+"Yes," was the growling response.
+
+"He favors you but little, old fellow, except in his cursed French accent.
+
+"'S blood, Beauchamp," he continued, turning to one of his companions, "an'
+were he set down in court, I wager our gracious Queen would he hard put to
+it to tell him from the young Prince Edward.  Dids't ever see so strange a
+likeness ?"
+
+"Now that you speak of it, My Lord, I see it plainly.  It is indeed a
+marvel," answered Beauchamp.
+
+Had they glanced at the old man during this colloquy, they would have seen
+a blanched face, drawn with inward fear and rage.
+
+Presently the oldest member of the party of three knights spoke in a grave
+quiet tone.
+
+"And how old might you be, my son ?" he asked the boy.
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"And your name ?"
+
+"I do not know what you mean.  I have no name.  My father calls me son and
+no other ever before addressed me."
+
+At this juncture, the old man arose and left the room, saving he would
+fetch more food from the kitchen, but he turned immediately he had passed
+the doorway and listened from without.
+
+"The lad appears about fifteen," said Paul of Merely, lowering his voice,
+"and so would be the little lost Prince Richard, if he lives.  This one
+does not know his name, or his age, yet he looks enough like Prince Edward
+to be his twin."
+
+"Come, my son," he continued aloud, "open your jerkin and let us have a
+look at your left breast, we shall read a true answer there."
+
+"Are you Englishmen ?" asked the boy without making a move to comply with
+their demand.
+
+"That we be, my son," said Beauchamp.
+
+"Then it were better that I die than do your bidding, for all Englishmen
+are pigs and I loathe them as becomes a gentleman of France.  I do not
+uncover my body to the eyes of swine."
+
+The knights, at first taken back by this unexpected outbreak, finally burst
+into uproarious laughter.
+
+"Indeed," cried Paul of Merely, "spoken as one of the King's foreign
+favorites might speak, and they ever told the good God's truth.  But come
+lad, we would not harm you -- do as I bid."
+
+"No man lives who can harm me while a blade hangs at my side," answered the
+boy, "and as for doing as you bid, I take orders from no man other than my
+father."
+
+Beauchamp and Greystoke laughed aloud at the discomfiture of Paul of
+Merely, but the latter's face hardened in anger, and without further words
+he strode forward with outstretched hand to tear open the boy's leathern
+jerkin, but met with the gleaming point of a sword and a quick sharp, "En
+garde !" from the boy.
+
+There was naught for Paul of Merely to do but draw his own weapon, in
+self-defense, for the sharp point of the boy's sword was flashing in and
+out against his unprotected body, inflicting painful little jabs, and the
+boy's tongue was murmuring low-toned taunts and insults as it invited him
+to draw and defend himself or be stuck "like the English pig you are."
+
+Paul of Merely was a brave man and he liked not the idea of drawing against
+this stripling, but he argued that he could quickly disarm him without
+harming the lad, and he certainly did not care to be further humiliated
+before his comrades.
+
+But when he had drawn and engaged his youthful antagonist, he discovered
+that, far from disarming him, he would have the devil's own job of it to
+keep from being killed.
+
+Never in all his long years of fighting had he faced such an agile and
+dexterous enemy, and as they backed this way and that about the room, great
+beads of sweat stood upon the brow of Paul of Merely, for he realized that
+he was fighting for his life against a superior swordsman.
+
+The loud laughter of Beauchamp and Greystoke soon subsided to grim smiles,
+and presently they looked on with startled faces in which fear and
+apprehension were dominant.
+
+The boy was fighting as a cat might play with a mouse.  No sign of exertion
+was apparent, and his haughty confident smile told louder than words that
+he had in no sense let himself out to his full capacity.
+
+Around and around the room they circled, the boy always advancing, Paul of
+Merely always retreating.  The din of their clashing swords and the heavy
+breathing of the older man were the only sounds, except as they brushed
+against a bench or a table.
+
+Paul of Merely was a brave man, but he shuddered at the thought of dying
+uselessly at the hands of a mere boy.  He would not call upon his friends
+for aid, but presently, to his relief, Beauchamp sprang between them with
+drawn sword, crying "Enough, gentlemen, enough !  You have no quarrel.
+Sheathe your swords."
+
+But the boy's only response was, "En garde, cochon," and Beauchamp found
+himself taking the center of the stage in the place of his friend.  Nor did
+the boy neglect Paul of Merely, but engaged them both in swordplay that
+caused the eyes of Greystoke to bulge from their sockets.
+
+So swiftly moved his flying blade that half the time it was a sheet of
+gleaming light, and now he was driving home his thrusts and the smile had
+frozen upon his lips -- grim and stern.
+
+Paul of Merely and Beauchamp were wounded in a dozen places when Greystoke
+rushed to their aid, and then it was that a little, wiry, gray man leaped
+agilely from the kitchen doorway, and with drawn sword took his place
+beside the boy.  It was now two against three and the three may have
+guessed, though they never knew, that they were pitted against the two
+greatest swordsmen in the world.
+
+"To the death," cried the little gray man, "a mort, mon fils." Scarcely had
+the words left his lips ere, as though it had but waited permission, the
+boy's sword flashed into the heart of Paul of Merely, and a Saxon gentleman
+was gathered to his fathers.
+
+The old man engaged Greystoke now, and the boy turned his undivided
+attention to Beauchamp.  Both these men were considered excellent
+swordsmen, but when Beauchamp heard again the little gray man's "a mort,
+mon fils," he shuddered, and the little hairs at the nape of his neck rose
+up, and his spine froze, for he knew that he had heard the sentence of
+death passed upon him; for no mortal had yet lived who could vanquish such
+a swordsman as he who now faced him.
+
+As Beauchamp pitched forward across a bench, dead, the little old man led
+Greystoke to where the boy awaited him.
+
+"They are thy enemies, my son, and to thee belongs the pleasure of revenge;
+a mort, mon fils."
+
+Greystoke was determined to sell his life dearly, and he rushed the lad as
+a great bull might rush a teasing dog, but the boy gave back not an inch
+and, when Greystoke stopped, there was a foot of cold steel protruding from
+his back.
+
+Together they buried the knights at the bottom of the dry moat at the back
+of the ruined castle.  First they had stripped them and, when they took
+account of the spoils of the combat, they found themselves richer by three
+horses with full trappings, many pieces of gold and silver money, ornaments
+and jewels, as well as the lances, swords and chain mail armor of their
+erstwhile guests.
+
+But the greatest gain, the old man thought to himself, was that the
+knowledge of the remarkable resemblance between his ward and Prince Edward
+of England had come to him in time to prevent the undoing of his life's
+work.
+
+The boy, while young, was tall and broad shouldered, and so the old man had
+little difficulty in fitting one of the suits of armor to him, obliterating
+the devices so that none might guess to whom it had belonged.  This he did,
+and from then on the boy never rode abroad except in armor, and when he met
+others upon the high road, his visor was always lowered that none might see
+his face.
+
+The day following the episode of the three knights the old man called the
+boy to him, saying,
+
+"It is time, my son, that thou learned an answer to such questions as were
+put to thee yestereve by the pigs of Henry.  Thou art fifteen years of age,
+and thy name be Norman, and so, as this be the ancient castle of Torn, thou
+mayst answer those whom thou desire to know it that thou art Norman of
+Torn; that thou be a French gentleman whose father purchased Torn and
+brought thee hither from France on the death of thy mother, when thou wert
+six years old.
+
+"But remember, Norman of Torn, that the best answer for an Englishman is
+the sword; naught else may penetrate his thick wit."
+
+And so was born that Norman of Torn, whose name in a few short years was to
+strike terror to the hearts of Englishmen, and whose power in the vicinity
+of Torn was greater than that of the King or the barons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+From now on, the old man devoted himself to the training of the boy in the
+handling of his lance and battle-axe, but each day also, a period was
+allotted to the sword, until, by the time the youth had turned sixteen,
+even the old man himself was as but a novice by comparison with the
+marvelous skill of his pupil.
+
+During these days, the boy rode Sir Mortimer abroad in many directions
+until he knew every bypath within a radius of fifty miles of Torn.
+Sometimes the old man accompanied him, but more often he rode alone.
+
+On one occasion, he chanced upon a hut at the outskirts of a small hamlet
+not far from Torn and, with the curiosity of boyhood, determined to enter
+and have speech with the inmates, for by this time the natural desire for
+companionship was commencing to assert itself.  In all his life, he
+remembered only the company of the old man, who never spoke except when
+necessity required.
+
+The hut was occupied by an old priest, and as the boy in armor pushed in,
+without the usual formality of knocking, the old man looked up with an
+expression of annoyance and disapproval.
+
+"What now," he said, "have the King's men respect neither for piety nor age
+that they burst in upon the seclusion of a holy man without so much as a
+'by your leave' ?"
+
+"I am no king's man," replied the boy quietly, "I am Norman of Torn, who
+has neither a king nor a god, and who says 'by your leave' to no man.  But
+I have come in peace because I wish to talk to another than my father.
+Therefore you may talk to me, priest," he concluded with haughty
+peremptoriness.
+
+"By the nose of John, but it must be a king has deigned to honor me with
+his commands," laughed the priest.  "Raise your visor, My Lord, I would
+fain look upon the countenance from which issue the commands of royalty."
+
+The priest was a large man with beaming, kindly eyes, and a round jovial
+face.  There was no bite in the tones of his good-natured retort, and so,
+smiling, the boy raised his visor.
+
+"By the ear of Gabriel," cried the good father, "a child in armor !"
+
+"A child in years, mayhap," replied the boy, "but a good child to own as a
+friend, if one has enemies who wear swords."
+
+"Then we shall be friends, Norman of Torn, for albeit I have few enemies,
+no man has too many friends, and I like your face and your manner, though
+there be much to wish for in your manners.  Sit down and eat with me, and I
+will talk to your heart's content, for be there one other thing I more love
+than eating, it is talking."
+
+With the priest's aid, the boy laid aside his armor, for it was heavy and
+uncomfortable, and together the two sat down to the meal that was already
+partially on the board.
+
+Thus began a friendship which lasted during the lifetime of the good
+priest.  Whenever he could do so, Norman of Torn visited his friend, Father
+Claude.  It was he who taught the boy to read and write in French, English
+and Latin at a time when but few of the nobles could sign their own names.
+
+French was spoken almost exclusively at court and among the higher classes
+of society, and all public documents were inscribed either in French or
+Latin, although about this time the first proclamation written in the
+English tongue was issued by an English king to his subjects.
+
+Father Claude taught the boy to respect the rights of others, to espouse
+the cause of the poor and weak, to revere God and to believe that the
+principal reason for man's existence was to protect woman.  All of virtue
+and chivalry and true manhood which his old guardian had neglected to
+inculcate in the boy's mind, the good priest planted there, but he could
+not eradicate his deep-seated hatred for the English or his belief that the
+real test of manhood lay in a desire to fight to the death with a sword.
+
+An occurrence which befell during one of the boy's earlier visits to his
+new friend rather decided the latter that no arguments he could bring to
+bear could ever overcome the bald fact that to this very belief of the
+boy's, and his ability to back it up with acts, the good father owed a
+great deal, possibly his life.
+
+As they were seated in the priest's hut one afternoon, a rough knock fell
+upon the door which was immediately pushed open to admit as disreputable a
+band of ruffians as ever polluted the sight of man.  Six of them there
+were, clothed in dirty leather, and wearing swords and daggers at their
+sides.
+
+The leader was a mighty fellow with a great shock of coarse black hair and
+a red, bloated face almost concealed by a huge matted black beard.  Behind
+him pushed another giant with red hair and a bristling mustache; while the
+third was marked by a terrible scar across his left cheek and forehead and
+from a blow which had evidently put out his left eye, for that socket was
+empty, and the sunken eyelid but partly covered the inflamed red of the
+hollow where his eye had been.
+
+"A ha, my hearties," roared the leader, turning to his motley crew, "fine
+pickings here indeed.  A swine of God fattened upon the sweat of such poor,
+honest devils as we, and a young shoat who, by his looks, must have pieces
+of gold in his belt.
+
+"Say your prayers, my pigeons," he continued, with a vile oath, "for The
+Black Wolf leaves no evidence behind him to tie his neck with a halter
+later, and dead men talk the least."
+
+"If it be The Black Wolf," whispered Father Claude to the boy, "no worse
+fate could befall us for he preys ever upon the clergy, and when drunk, as
+he now is, he murders his victims.  I will throw myself before them while
+you hasten through the rear doorway to your horse, and make good your
+escape." He spoke in French, and held his hands in the attitude of prayer,
+so that he quite entirely misled the ruffians, who had no idea that he was
+communicating with the boy.
+
+Norman of Torn could scarce repress a smile at this clever ruse of the old
+priest, and, assuming a similar attitude, he replied in French:
+
+"The good Father Claude does not know Norman of Torn if he thinks he runs
+out the back door like an old woman because a sword looks in at the front
+door."
+
+Then rising he addressed the ruffians.
+
+"I do not know what manner of grievance you hold against my good friend
+here, nor neither do I care.  It is sufficient that he is the friend of
+Norman of Torn, and that Norman of Torn be here in person to acknowledge
+the debt of friendship.  Have at you, sir knights of the great filth and
+the mighty stink !" and with drawn sword he vaulted over the table and fell
+upon the surprised leader.
+
+In the little room, but two could engage him at once, but so fiercely did
+his blade swing and so surely did he thrust that, in a bare moment, The
+Black Wolf lay dead upon the floor and the red giant, Shandy, was badly,
+though not fatally wounded.  The four remaining ruffians backed quickly
+from the hut, and a more cautious fighter would have let them go their way
+in peace, for in the open, four against one are odds no man may pit himself
+against with impunity.  But Norman of Torn saw red when he fought and the
+red lured him ever on into the thickest of the fray.  Only once before had
+he fought to the death, but that once had taught him the love of it, and
+ever after until his death, it marked his manner of fighting; so that men
+who loathed and hated and feared him were as one with those who loved him
+in acknowledging that never before had God joined in the human frame
+absolute supremacy with the sword and such utter fearlessness.
+
+So it was, now, that instead of being satisfied with his victory, he rushed
+out after the four knaves.  Once in the open, they turned upon him, but he
+sprang into their midst with his seething blade, and it was as though they
+faced four men rather than one, so quickly did he parry a thrust here and
+return a cut there.  In a moment one was disarmed, another down, and the
+remaining two fleeing for their lives toward the high road with Norman of
+Torn close at their heels.
+
+Young, agile and perfect in health, he outclassed them in running as well
+as in swordsmanship, and ere they had made fifty paces, both had thrown
+away their swords and were on their knees pleading for their lives.
+
+"Come back to the good priest's hut, and we shall see what he may say,"
+replied Norman of Torn.
+
+On the way back, they found the man who had been disarmed bending over his
+wounded comrade.  They were brothers, named Flory, and one would not desert
+the other.  It was evident that the wounded man was in no danger, so Norman
+of Torn ordered the others to assist him into the hut, where they found Red
+Shandy sitting propped against the wall while the good father poured the
+contents of a flagon down his eager throat.
+
+The villain's eyes fairly popped from his head when he saw his four
+comrades coming, unarmed and prisoners, back to the little room.
+
+"The Black Wolf dead, Red Shandy and John Flory wounded, James Flory, One
+Eye Kanty and Peter the Hermit prisoners !" he ejaculated.
+
+"Man or devil !  By the Pope's hind leg, who and what be ye ?" he said,
+turning to Norman of Torn.
+
+"I be your master and ye be my men," said Norman of Torn.  "Me ye shall
+serve in fairer work than ye have selected for yourselves, but with
+fighting a-plenty and good reward."
+
+The sight of this gang of ruffians banded together to prey upon the clergy
+had given rise to an idea in the boy's mind, which had been revolving in a
+nebulous way within the innermost recesses of his subconsciousness since
+his vanquishing of the three knights had brought him, so easily, such
+riches in the form of horses, arms, armor and gold.  As was always his wont
+in his after life, to think was to act.
+
+"With The Black Wolf dead, and may the devil pull out his eyes with red hot
+tongs, we might look farther and fare worse, mates, in search of a chief,"
+spoke Red Shandy, eyeing his fellows, "for verily any man, be he but a
+stripling, who can vanquish six such as we, be fit to command us."
+
+"But what be the duties ?" said he whom they called Peter the Hermit.
+
+"To follow Norman of Torn where he may lead, to protect the poor and the
+weak, to lay down your lives in defence of woman, and to prey upon rich
+Englishmen and harass the King of England."
+
+The last two clauses of these articles of faith appealed to the ruffians so
+strongly that they would have subscribed to anything, even daily mass, and
+a bath, had that been necessary to admit them to the service of Norman of
+Torn.
+
+"Aye, aye !" they cried.  "We be your men, indeed."
+
+"Wait," said Norman of Torn, "there is more.  You are to obey my every
+command on pain of instant death, and one-half of all your gains are to be
+mine.  On my side, I will clothe and feed you, furnish you with mounts and
+armor and weapons and a roof to sleep under, and fight for and with you
+with a sword arm which you know to be no mean protector.  Are you
+satisfied ?"
+
+"That we are," and "Long live Norman of Torn," and "Here's to the chief of
+the Torns" signified the ready assent of the burly cut-throats.
+
+"Then swear it as ye kiss the hilt of my sword and this token," pursued
+Norman of Torn catching up a crucifix from the priest's table.
+
+With these formalities was born the Clan Torn, which grew in a few years to
+number a thousand men, and which defied a king's army and helped to make
+Simon de Montfort virtual ruler of England.
+
+Almost immediately commenced that series of outlaw acts upon neighboring
+barons, and chance members of the gentry who happened to be caught in the
+open by the outlaws, that filled the coffers of Norman of Torn with many
+pieces of gold and silver, and placed a price upon his head ere he had
+scarce turned eighteen.
+
+That he had no fear of or desire to avoid responsibility for his acts, he
+grimly evidenced by marking with a dagger's point upon the foreheads of
+those who fell before his own sword the initials NT.
+
+As his following and wealth increased, he rebuilt and enlarged the grim
+Castle of Torn, and again dammed the little stream which had furnished the
+moat with water in bygone days.
+
+Through all the length and breadth of the country that witnessed his
+activities, his very name was worshipped by poor and lowly and oppressed.
+The money he took from the King's tax gatherers, he returned to the
+miserable peasants of the district, and once when Henry III sent a little
+expedition against him, he surrounded and captured the entire force, and,
+stripping them, gave their clothing to the poor, and escorted them, naked,
+back to the very gates of London.
+
+By the time he was twenty, Norman the Devil, as the King himself had dubbed
+him, was known by reputation throughout all England, though no man had seen
+his face and lived other than his friends and followers.  He had become a
+power to reckon with in the fast culminating quarrel between King Henry and
+his foreign favorites on one side, and the Saxon and Norman barons on the
+other.
+
+Neither side knew which way his power might be turned, for Norman of Torn
+had preyed almost equally upon royalist and insurgent.  Personally, he had
+decided to join neither party, but to take advantage of the turmoil of the
+times to prey without partiality upon both.
+
+As Norman of Torn approached his grim castle home with his five filthy,
+ragged cut-throats on the day of his first meeting with them, the old man
+of Torn stood watching the little party from one of the small towers of the
+barbican.
+
+Halting beneath this outer gate, the youth winded the horn which hung at
+his side in mimicry of the custom of the times.
+
+"What ho, without there !" challenged the old man entering grimly into the
+spirit of the play.
+
+"'Tis Sir Norman of Torn," spoke up Red Shandy, "with his great host of
+noble knights and men-at-arms and squires and lackeys and sumpter beasts.
+Open in the name of the good right arm of Sir Norman of Torn."
+
+"What means this, my son ?" said the old man as Norman of Torn dismounted
+within the ballium.
+
+The youth narrated the events of the morning, concluding with, "These,
+then, be my men, father; and together we shall fare forth upon the highways
+and into the byways of England, to collect from the rich English pigs that
+living which you have ever taught me was owing us."
+
+"'Tis well, my son, and even as I myself would have it; together we shall
+ride out, and where we ride, a trail of blood shall mark our way.
+
+"From now, henceforth, the name and fame of Norman of Torn shall grow in
+the land, until even the King shall tremble when he hears it, and shall
+hate and loathe ye as I have even taught ye to hate and loathe him.
+
+"All England shall curse ye and the blood of Saxon and Norman shall never
+dry upon your blade."
+
+As the old man walked away toward the great gate of the castle after this
+outbreak, Shandy, turning to Norman of Torn, with a wide grin, said:
+
+"By the Pope's hind leg, but thy amiable father loveth the English.  There
+should be great riding after such as he."
+
+"Ye ride after ME, varlet," cried Norman of Torn, "an' lest ye should
+forget again so soon who be thy master, take that, as a reminder," and he
+struck the red giant full upon the mouth with his clenched fist -- so that
+the fellow tumbled heavily to the earth.
+
+He was on his feet in an instant, spitting blood, and in a towering rage.
+As he rushed, bull-like, toward Norman of Torn, the latter made no move to
+draw; he but stood with folded arms, eyeing Shandy with cold, level gaze;
+his head held high, haughty face marked by an arrogant sneer of contempt.
+
+The great ruffian paused, then stopped, slowly a sheepish smile overspread
+his countenance and, going upon one knee, he took the hand of Norman of
+Torn and kissed it, as some great and loyal noble knight might have kissed
+his king's hand in proof of his love and fealty.  There was a certain rude,
+though chivalrous grandeur in the act; and it marked not only the beginning
+of a lifelong devotion and loyalty on the part of Shandy toward his young
+master, but was prophetic of the attitude which Norman of Torn was to
+inspire in all the men who served him during the long years that saw
+thousands pass the barbicans of Torn to crave a position beneath his grim
+banner.
+
+As Shandy rose, one by one, John Flory, James, his brother, One Eye Kanty,
+and Peter the Hermit knelt before their young lord and kissed his hand.
+From the Great Court beyond, a little, grim, gray, old man had watched this
+scene, a slight smile upon his old, malicious face.
+
+"'Tis to transcend even my dearest dreams," he muttered.  "'S death, but he
+be more a king than Henry himself.  God speed the day of his coronation,
+when, before the very eyes of the Plantagenet hound, a black cap shall be
+placed upon his head for a crown; beneath his feet the platform of a wooden
+gibbet for a throne."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+It was a beautiful spring day in May, 1262, that Norman of Torn rode alone
+down the narrow trail that led to the pretty cottage with which he had
+replaced the hut of his old friend, Father Claude.
+
+As was his custom, he rode with lowered visor, and nowhere upon his person
+or upon the trappings of his horse were sign or insignia of rank or house.
+More powerful and richer than many nobles of the court, he was without rank
+or other title than that of outlaw and he seemed to assume what in reality
+he held in little esteem.
+
+He wore armor because his old guardian had urged him to do so, and not
+because he craved the protection it afforded.  And, for the same cause, he
+rode always with lowered visor, though he could never prevail upon the old
+man to explain the reason which necessitated this precaution.
+
+"It is enough that I tell you, my son," the old fellow was wont to say,
+"that for your own good as well as mine, you must not show your face to
+your enemies until I so direct.  The time will come and soon now, I hope,
+when you shall uncover your countenance to all England."
+
+The young man gave the matter but little thought, usually passing it off as
+the foolish whim of an old dotard; but he humored it nevertheless.
+
+Behind him, as he rode down the steep declivity that day, loomed a very
+different Torn from that which he had approached sixteen years before,
+when, as a little boy he had ridden through the darkening shadows of the
+night, perched upon a great horse behind the little old woman, whose
+metamorphosis to the little grim, gray, old man of Torn their advent to the
+castle had marked.
+
+Today the great, frowning pile loomed larger and more imposing than ever in
+the most resplendent days of its past grandeur.  The original keep was
+there with its huge, buttressed Saxon towers whose mighty fifteen foot
+walls were pierced with stairways and vaulted chambers, lighted by
+embrasures which, mere slits in the outer periphery of the walls, spread to
+larger dimensions within, some even attaining the area of small triangular
+chambers.
+
+The moat, widened and deepened, completely encircled three sides of the
+castle, running between the inner and outer walls, which were set at
+intervals with small projecting towers so pierced that a flanking fire from
+long bows, cross bows and javelins might be directed against a scaling
+party.
+
+The fourth side of the walled enclosure overhung a high precipice, which
+natural protection rendered towers unnecessary upon this side.
+
+The main gateway of the castle looked toward the west and from it ran the
+tortuous and rocky trail, down through the mountains toward the valley
+below.  The aspect from the great gate was one of quiet and rugged beauty.
+A short stretch of barren downs in the foreground only sparsely studded
+with an occasional gnarled oak gave an unobstructed view of broad and
+lovely meadowland through which wound a sparkling tributary of the Trent.
+
+Two more gateways let into the great fortress, one piercing the north wall
+and one the east.  All three gates were strongly fortified with towered and
+buttressed barbicans which must be taken before the main gates could be
+reached.  Each barbican was portcullised, while the inner gates were
+similarly safeguarded in addition to the drawbridges which, spanning the
+moat when lowered, could be drawn up at the approach of an enemy,
+effectually stopping his advance.
+
+The new towers and buildings added to the ancient keep under the direction
+of Norman of Torn and the grim, old man whom he called father, were of the
+Norman type of architecture, the windows were larger, the carving more
+elaborate, the rooms lighter and more spacious.
+
+Within the great enclosure thrived a fair sized town, for, with his ten
+hundred fighting-men, the Outlaw of Torn required many squires, lackeys,
+cooks, scullions, armorers, smithies, farriers, hostlers and the like to
+care for the wants of his little army.
+
+Fifteen hundred war horses, beside five hundred sumpter beasts, were
+quartered in the great stables, while the east court was alive with cows,
+oxen, goats, sheep, pigs, rabbits and chickens.
+
+Great wooden carts drawn by slow, plodding oxen were daily visitors to the
+grim pile, fetching provender for man and beast from the neighboring farm
+lands of the poor Saxon peasants, to whom Norman of Torn paid good gold for
+their crops.
+
+These poor serfs, who were worse than slaves to the proud barons who owned
+the land they tilled, were forbidden by royal edict to sell or give a
+pennysworth of provisions to the Outlaw of Torn, upon pain of death, but
+nevertheless his great carts made their trips regularly and always returned
+full laden, and though the husbandmen told sad tales to their overlords of
+the awful raids of the Devil of Torn in which he seized upon their stuff by
+force, their tongues were in their cheeks as they spoke and the Devil's
+gold in their pockets.
+
+And so, while the barons learned to hate him the more, the peasants' love
+for him increased.  Them he never injured; their fences, their stock, their
+crops, their wives and daughters were safe from molestation even though the
+neighboring castle of their lord might be sacked from the wine cellar to
+the ramparts of the loftiest tower.  Nor did anyone dare ride rough shod
+over the territory which Norman of Torn patrolled.  A dozen bands of
+cut-throats he had driven from the Derby hills, and though the barons would
+much rather have had all the rest than he, the peasants worshipped him as a
+deliverer from the lowborn murderers who had been wont to despoil the weak
+and lowly and on whose account the women of the huts and cottages had never
+been safe.
+
+Few of them had seen his face and fewer still had spoken with him, but they
+loved his name and his prowess and in secret they prayed for him to their
+ancient god, Wodin, and the lesser gods of the forest and the meadow and
+the chase, for though they were confessed Christians, still in the hearts
+of many beat a faint echo of the old superstitions of their ancestors; and
+while they prayed also to the Lord Jesus and to Mary, yet they felt it
+could do no harm to be on the safe side with the others, in case they did
+happen to exist.
+
+A poor, degraded, downtrodden, ignorant, superstitious people, they were;
+accustomed for generations to the heel of first one invader and then
+another and in the interims, when there were any, the heels of their feudal
+lords and their rapacious monarchs.
+
+No wonder then that such as these worshipped the Outlaw of Torn, for since
+their fierce Saxon ancestors had come, themselves as conquerors, to
+England, no other hand had ever been raised to shield them from oppression.
+
+On this policy of his toward the serfs and freedmen, Norman of Torn and the
+grim, old man whom he called father had never agreed.  The latter was for
+carrying his war of hate against all Englishmen, but the young man would
+neither listen to it, nor allow any who rode out from Torn to molest the
+lowly.  A ragged tunic was a surer defence against this wild horde than a
+stout lance or an emblazoned shield.
+
+So, as Norman of Torn rode down from his mighty castle to visit Father
+Claude, the sunlight playing on his clanking armor and glancing from the
+copper boss of his shield, the sight of a little group of woodmen kneeling
+uncovered by the roadside as he passed was not so remarkable after all.
+
+Entering the priest's study, Norman of Torn removed his armor and lay back
+moodily upon a bench with his back against a wall and his strong, lithe
+legs stretched out before him.
+
+"What ails you, my son ?" asked the priest, "that you look so disconsolate
+on this beautiful day ?"
+
+"I do not know, Father," replied Norman of Torn, "unless it be that I am
+asking myself the question, 'What it is all for ?' Why did my father train
+me ever to prey upon my fellows ?  I like to fight, but there is plenty of
+fighting which is legitimate, and what good may all my stolen wealth avail
+me if I may not enter the haunts of men to spend it ?  Should I stick my
+head into London town, it would doubtless stay there, held by a hempen
+necklace.
+
+"What quarrel have I with the King or the gentry ?  They have quarrel
+enough with me it is true, but, nathless, I do not know why I should have
+hated them so before I was old enough to know how rotten they really are.
+So it seems to me that I am but the instrument of an old man's spite, not
+even knowing the grievance to the avenging of which my life has been
+dedicated by another.
+
+"And at times, Father Claude, as I grow older, I doubt much that the
+nameless old man of Torn is my father, so little do I favor him, and never
+in all my life have I heard a word of fatherly endearment or felt a caress,
+even as a little child.  What think you, Father Claude ?"
+
+"I have thought much of it, my son," answered the priest.  "It has ever
+been a sore puzzle to me, and I have my suspicions, which I have held for
+years, but which even the thought of so frightens me that I shudder to
+speculate upon the consequences of voicing them aloud.  Norman of Torn, if
+you are not the son of the old man you call father, may God forfend that
+England ever guesses your true parentage.  More than this, I dare not say
+except that, as you value your peace of mind and your life, keep your visor
+down and keep out of the clutches of your enemies."
+
+"Then you know why I should keep my visor down ?"
+
+"I can only guess, Norman of Torn, because I have seen another whom you
+resemble."
+
+The conversation was interrupted by a commotion from without; the sound of
+horses' hoofs, the cries of men and the clash of arms.  In an instant, both
+men were at the tiny unglazed window.  Before them, on the highroad, five
+knights in armor were now engaged in furious battle with a party of ten or
+a dozen other steel-clad warriors, while crouching breathless on her
+palfry , a young woman sat a little apart from the contestants.
+
+Presently, one of the knights detached himself from the melee and rode to
+her side with some word of command, at the same time grasping roughly at
+her bridle rein.  The girl raised her riding whip and struck repeatedly but
+futilely against the iron headgear of her assailant while he swung his
+horse up the road, and, dragging her palfrey after him, galloped rapidly
+out of sight.
+
+Norman of Torn sprang to the door, and, reckless of his unarmored
+condition, leaped to Sir Mortimer's back and spurred swiftly in the
+direction taken by the girl and her abductor.
+
+The great black was fleet, and, unencumbered by the usual heavy armor of
+his rider, soon brought the fugitives to view.  Scarce a mile had been
+covered ere the knight, turning to look for pursuers, saw the face of
+Norman of Torn not ten paces behind him.
+
+With a look of mingled surprise, chagrin and incredulity the knight reined
+in his horse, exclaiming as he did so, "Mon Dieu, Edward !"
+
+"Draw and defend yourself," cried Norman of Torn.
+
+"But, Your Highness," stammered the knight.
+
+"Draw, or I stick you as I have stuck an hundred other English pigs," cried
+Norman of Torn.
+
+The charging steed was almost upon him and the knight looked to see the
+rider draw rein, but, like a black bolt, the mighty Sir Mortimer struck the
+other horse full upon the shoulder, and man and steed rolled in the dust of
+the roadway.
+
+The knight arose, unhurt, and Norman of Torn dismounted to give fair battle
+upon even terms.  Though handicapped by the weight of his armor, the knight
+also had the advantage of its protection, so that the two fought furiously
+for several minutes without either gaining an advantage.
+
+The girl sat motionless and wide-eyed at the side of the road watching
+every move of the two contestants.  She made no effort to escape, but
+seemed riveted to the spot by the very fierceness of the battle she was
+beholding, as well, possibly, as by the fascination of the handsome giant
+who had espoused her cause.  As she looked upon her champion, she saw a
+lithe, muscular, brown-haired youth whose clear eyes and perfect figure,
+unconcealed by either bassinet or hauberk, reflected the clean, athletic
+life of the trained fighting man.
+
+Upon his face hovered a faint, cold smile of haughty pride as the sword
+arm, displaying its mighty strength and skill in every move, played with
+the sweating, puffing, steel-clad enemy who hacked and hewed so futilely
+before him.  For all the din of clashing blades and rattling armor, neither
+of the contestants had inflicted much damage, for the knight could neither
+force nor insinuate his point beyond the perfect guard of his unarmored
+foe, who, for his part, found difficulty in penetrating the other's armor.
+
+Finally, by dint of his mighty strength, Norman of Torn drove his blade
+through the meshes of his adversary's mail, and the fellow, with a cry of
+anguish, sank limply to the ground.
+
+"Quick, Sir Knight !" cried the girl.  "Mount and flee; yonder come his
+fellows."
+
+And surely, as Norman of Torn turned in the direction from which he had
+just come, there, racing toward him at full tilt, rode three steel-armored
+men on their mighty horses.
+
+"Ride, madam," cried Norman of Torn, "for fly I shall not, nor may I,
+alone, unarmored, and on foot hope more than to momentarily delay these
+three fellows, but in that time you should easily make your escape.  Their
+heavy-burdened animals could never o'ertake your fleet palfrey."
+
+As he spoke, he took note for the first time of the young woman.  That she
+was a lady of quality was evidenced not alone by the richness of her riding
+apparel and the trappings of her palfrey, but as well in her noble and
+haughty demeanor and the proud expression of her beautiful face.
+
+Although at this time nearly twenty years had passed over the head of
+Norman of Torn, he was without knowledge or experience in the ways of
+women, nor had he ever spoken with a female of quality or position.  No
+woman graced the castle of Torn nor had the boy, within his memory, ever
+known a mother.
+
+His attitude therefore was much the same toward women as it was toward men,
+except that he had sworn always to protect them.  Possibly, in a way, he
+looked up to womankind, if it could be said that Norman of Torn looked up
+to anything: God, man or devil -- it being more his way to look down upon
+all creatures whom he took the trouble to notice at all.
+
+As his glance rested upon this woman, whom fate had destined to alter the
+entire course of his life, Norman of Torn saw that she was beautiful, and
+that she was of that class against whom he had preyed for years with his
+band of outlaw cut-throats.  Then he turned once more to face her enemies
+with the strange inconsistency which had ever marked his methods.
+
+Tomorrow he might be assaulting the ramparts of her father's castle, but
+today he was joyously offering to sacrifice his life for her -- had she
+been the daughter of a charcoal burner he would have done no less.  It was
+enough that she was a woman and in need of protection.
+
+The three knights were now fairly upon him, and with fine disregard for
+fair play, charged with couched spears the unarmored man on foot.  But as
+the leading knight came close enough to behold his face, he cried out in
+surprise and consternation:
+
+"Mon Dieu, le Prince !" He wheeled his charging horse to one side.  His
+fellows, hearing his cry, followed his example, and the three of them
+dashed on down the high road in as evident anxiety to escape as they had
+been keen to attack.
+
+"One would think they had met the devil," muttered Norman of Torn, looking
+after them in unfeigned astonishment.
+
+"What means it, lady ?" he asked turning to the damsel, who had made no
+move to escape.
+
+"It means that your face is well known in your father's realm, my Lord
+Prince," she replied.  "And the King's men have no desire to antagonize
+you, even though they may understand as little as I why you should espouse
+the cause of a daughter of Simon de Montfort."
+
+"Am I then taken for Prince Edward of England ?" he asked.
+
+"An' who else should you be taken for, my Lord ?"
+
+"I am not the Prince," said Norman of Torn.  "It is said that Edward is in
+France."
+
+"Right you are, sir," exclaimed the girl.  "I had not thought on that; but
+you be enough of his likeness that you might well deceive the Queen
+herself.  And you be of a bravery fit for a king's son.  Who are you then,
+Sir Knight, who has bared your steel and faced death for Bertrade, daughter
+of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester ?"
+
+"Be you De Montfort's daughter, niece of King Henry ?" queried Norman of
+Torn, his eyes narrowing to mere slits and face hardening.
+
+"That I be," replied the girl, "an' from your face I take it you have
+little love for a De Montfort," she added, smiling.
+
+"An' whither may you be bound, Lady Bertrade de Montfort ?  Be you niece or
+daughter of the devil, yet still you be a woman, and I do not war against
+women.  Wheresoever you would go will I accompany you to safety."
+
+"I was but now bound, under escort of five of my father's knights, to visit
+Mary, daughter of John de Stutevill of Derby."
+
+"I know the castle well," answered Norman of Torn, and the shadow of a grim
+smile played about his lips, for scarce sixty days had elapsed since he had
+reduced the stronghold, and levied tribute on the great baron.  "Come, you
+have not far to travel now, and if we make haste you shall sup with your
+friend before dark."
+
+So saying, he mounted his horse and was turning to retrace their steps down
+the road when he noticed the body of the dead knight lying where it had
+fallen.
+
+"Ride on," he called to Bertrade de Montfort, "I will join you in an
+instant."
+
+Again dismounting, he returned to the side of his late adversary, and
+lifting the dead knight's visor, drew upon the forehead with the point of
+his dagger the letters NT.
+
+The girl turned to see what detained him, but his back was toward her and
+he knelt beside his fallen foeman, and she did not see his act.  Brave
+daughter of a brave sire though she was, had she seen what he did, her
+heart would have quailed within her and she would have fled in terror from
+the clutches of this scourge of England, whose mark she had seen on the
+dead foreheads of a dozen of her father's knights and kinsmen.
+
+Their way to Stutevill lay past the cottage of Father Claude, and here
+Norman of Torn stopped to don his armor.  Now he rode once more with
+lowered visor, and in silence, a little to the rear of Bertrade de Montfort
+that he might watch her face, which, of a sudden, had excited his interest.
+
+Never before, within the scope of his memory, had he been so close to a
+young and beautiful woman for so long a period of time, although he had
+often seen women in the castles that had fallen before his vicious and
+terrible attacks.  While stories were abroad of his vile treatment of women
+captives, there was no truth in them.  They were merely spread by his
+enemies to incite the people against him.  Never had Norman of Torn laid
+violent hand upon a woman, and his cut-throat band were under oath to
+respect and protect the sex, on penalty of death.
+
+As he watched the semi-profile of the lovely face before him, something
+stirred in his heart which had been struggling for expression for years.
+It was not love, nor was it allied to love, but a deep longing for
+companionship of such as she, and such as she represented.  Norman of Torn
+could not have translated this feeling into words for he did not know, but
+it was the far faint cry of blood for blood and with it, mayhap, was mixed
+not alone the longing of the lion among jackals for other lions, but for
+his lioness.
+
+They rode for many miles in silence when suddenly she turned, saying:
+
+"You take your time, Sir Knight, in answering my query.  Who be ye ?"
+
+"I am Nor -- " and then he stopped.  Always before he had answered that
+question with haughty pride.  Why should he hesitate, he thought.  Was it
+because he feared the loathing that name would inspire in the breast of
+this daughter of the aristocracy he despised ?  Did Norman of Torn fear to
+face the look of seem and repugnance that was sure to be mirrored in that
+lovely face ?
+
+"I am from Normandy," he went on quietly.  "A gentleman of France."
+
+"But your name ?" she said peremptorily.  "Are you ashamed of your name ?"
+
+"You may call me Roger," he answered.  "Roger de Conde."
+
+"Raise your visor, Roger de Conde," she commanded.  "I do not take pleasure
+in riding with a suit of armor; I would see that there is a man within."
+
+Norman of Torn smiled as he did her bidding, and when he smiled thus, as he
+rarely did, he was good to look upon.
+
+"It is the first command I have obeyed since I turned sixteen, Bertrade de
+Montfort," he said.
+
+The girl was about nineteen, full of the vigor and gaiety of youth and
+health; and so the two rode on their journey talking and laughing as they
+might have been friends of long standing.
+
+She told him of the reason for the attack upon her earlier in the day,
+attributing it to an attempt on the part of a certain baron, Peter of
+Colfax, to abduct her, his suit for her hand having been peremptorily and
+roughly denied by her father.
+
+Simon de Montfort was no man to mince words, and it is doubtless that the
+old reprobate who sued for his daughter's hand heard some unsavory truths
+from the man who had twice scandalized England's nobility by his rude and
+discourteous, though true and candid, speeches to the King.
+
+"This Peter of Colfax shall be looked to," growled Norman of Torn.  "And,
+as you have refused his heart and hand, his head shall be yours for the
+asking.  You have but to command, Bertrade de Montfort."
+
+"Very well," she laughed, thinking it but the idle boasting so much
+indulged in in those days.  "You may bring me his head upon a golden dish,
+Roger de Conde."
+
+"And what reward does the knight earn who brings to the feet of his
+princess the head of her enemy ?" he asked lightly.
+
+"What boon would the knight ask ?"
+
+"That whatsoever a bad report you hear of your knight, of whatsoever
+calumnies may be heaped upon him, you shall yet ever be his friend, and
+believe in his honor and his loyalty."
+
+The girl laughed gaily as she answered, though something seemed to tell her
+that this was more than play.
+
+"It shall be as you say, Sir Knight," she replied.  "And the boon once
+granted shall be always kept."
+
+Quick to reach decisions and as quick to act, Norman of Torn decided that
+he liked this girl and that he wished her friendship more than any other
+thing he knew of.  And wishing it, he determined to win it by any means
+that accorded with his standard of honor; an honor which in many respects
+was higher than that of the nobles of his time.
+
+They reached the castle of De Stutevill late in the afternoon, and there,
+Norman of Torn was graciously welcomed and urged to accept the Baron's
+hospitality overnight.
+
+The grim humor of the situation was too much for the outlaw, and, when
+added to his new desire to be in the company of Bertrade de Montfort, he
+made no effort to resist, but hastened to accept the warm welcome.
+
+At the long table upon which the evening meal was spread sat the entire
+household of the Baron, and here and there among the men were evidences of
+painful wounds but barely healed, while the host himself still wore his
+sword arm in a sling.
+
+"We have been through grievous times," said Sir John, noticing that his
+guest was glancing at the various evidences of conflict.  "That fiend,
+Norman the Devil, with his filthy pack of cut-throats, besieged us for ten
+days, and then took the castle by storm and sacked it.  Life is no longer
+safe in England with the King spending his time and money with foreign
+favorites and buying alien soldiery to fight against his own barons,
+instead of insuring the peace and protection which is the right of every
+Englishman at home.
+
+"But," he continued, "this outlaw devil will come to the end of a short
+halter when once our civil strife is settled, for the barons themselves
+have decided upon an expedition against him, if the King will not subdue
+him."
+
+"An' he may send the barons naked home as he did the King's soldiers,"
+laughed Bertrade de Montfort.  "I should like to see this fellow; what may
+he look like -- from the appearance of yourself, Sir John, and many of your
+men-at-arms, there should be no few here but have met him."
+
+    "Not once did he raise his visor while he was among us," replied the
+Baron, "but there are those who claim they had a brief glimpse of him and
+that he is of horrid countenance, wearing a great yellow beard and having
+one eye gone, and a mighty red scar from his forehead to his chin."
+
+"A fearful apparition," murmured Norman of Torn.  "No wonder he keeps his
+helm closed."
+
+"But such a swordsman," spoke up a son of De Stutevill.  "Never in all the
+world was there such swordplay as I saw that day in the courtyard."
+
+"I, too, have seen some wonderful swordplay," said Bertrade de Montfort,
+"and that today.  O he !" she cried, laughing gleefully, "verily do I
+believe I have captured the wild Norman of Torn, for this very knight, who
+styles himself Roger de Conde, fights as I ne'er saw man fight before, and
+he rode with his visor down until I chide him for it."
+
+Norman of Torn led in the laugh which followed, and of all the company he
+most enjoyed the joke.
+
+"An' speaking of the Devil," said the Baron, "how think you he will side
+should the King eventually force war upon the barons ?  With his thousand
+hell-hounds, the fate of England might well he in the palm of his bloody
+hand."
+
+"He loves neither King nor baron," spoke Mary de Stutevill, "and I rather
+lean to the thought that he will serve neither, but rather plunder the
+castles of both rebel and royalist whilst their masters be absent at war."
+
+"It be more to his liking to come while the master be home to welcome him,"
+said De Stutevill, ruthfully.  "But yet I am always in fear for the safety
+of my wife and daughters when I be away from Derby for any time.  May the
+good God soon deliver England from this Devil of Torn."
+
+"I think you may have no need of fear on that score," spoke Mary, "for
+Norman of Torn offered no violence to any woman within the wall of
+Stutevill, and when one of his men laid a heavy hand upon me, it was the
+great outlaw himself who struck the fellow such a blow with his mailed hand
+as to crack the ruffian's helm, saying at the time, 'Know you, fellow,
+Norman of Torn does not war upon women ?'"
+
+Presently the conversation turned to other subjects and Norman of Torn
+heard no more of himself during that evening.
+
+His stay at the castle of Stutevill was drawn out to three days, and then,
+on the third day, as he sat with Bertrade de Montfort in an embrasure of
+the south tower of the old castle, he spoke once more of the necessity for
+leaving and once more she urged him to remain.
+
+"To be with you, Bertrade of Montfort," he said boldly, "I would forego any
+other pleasure, and endure any privation, or face any danger, but there are
+others who look to me for guidance and my duty calls me away from you.  You
+shall see me again, and at the castle of your father, Simon de Montfort, in
+Leicester.  Provided," he added, "that you will welcome me there."
+
+"I shall always welcome you, wherever I may be, Roger de Conde," replied
+the girl.
+
+"Remember that promise," he said smiling.  "Some day you may be glad to
+repudiate it."
+
+"Never," she insisted, and a light that shone in her eyes as she said it
+would have meant much to a man better versed in the ways of women than was
+Norman of Torn.
+
+"I hope not," he said gravely.  "I cannot tell you, being but poorly
+trained in courtly ways, what I should like to tell you, that you might
+know how much your friendship means to me.  Goodbye, Bertrade de Montfort,"
+and he bent to one knee, as he raised her fingers to his lips.
+
+As he passed over the drawbridge and down toward the highroad a few minutes
+later on his way back to Torn, he turned for one last look at the castle
+and there, in an embrasure in the south tower, stood a young woman who
+raised her hand to wave, and then, as though by sudden impulse, threw a
+kiss after the departing knight, only to disappear from the embrasure with
+the act.
+
+As Norman of Torn rode back to his grim castle in the hills of Derby, he
+had much food for thought upon the way.  Never till now had he realized
+what might lie in another manner of life, and he felt a twinge of
+bitterness toward the hard, old man whom he called father, and whose
+teachings from the boy's earliest childhood had guided him in the ways that
+had out him off completely from the society of other men, except the wild
+horde of outlaws, ruffians and adventurers that rode beneath the grisly
+banner of the young chief of Torn.
+
+Only in an ill-defined, nebulous way did he feel that it was the girl who
+had come into his life that caused him for the first time to feel shame for
+his past deeds.  He did not know the meaning of love, and so he could not
+know that he loved Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+And another thought which now filled his mind was the fact of his strange
+likeness to the Crown Prince of England.  This, together with the words of
+Father Claude, puzzled him sorely.  What might it mean ?  Was it a heinous
+offence to own an accidental likeness to a king's son ?
+
+But now that he felt he had solved the reason that he rode always with
+closed helm, he was for the first time anxious himself to hide his face
+from the sight of men.  Not from fear, for he knew not fear, but from some
+inward impulse which he did not attempt to fathom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+As Norman of Torn rode out from the castle of De Stutevill, Father Claude
+dismounted from his sleek donkey within the ballium of Torn.  The austere
+stronghold, notwithstanding its repellent exterior and unsavory reputation,
+always extended a warm welcome to the kindly, genial priest; not alone
+because of the deep friendship which the master of Torn felt for the good
+father, but through the personal charm, and lovableness of the holy man's
+nature, which shone alike on saint and sinner.
+
+It was doubtless due to his unremitting labors with the youthful Norman,
+during the period that the boy's character was most amenable to strong
+impressions, that the policy of the mighty outlaw was in many respects pure
+and lofty.  It was this same influence, though, which won for Father Claude
+his only enemy in Torn; the little, grim, gray, old man whose sole aim in
+life seemed to have been to smother every finer instinct of chivalry and
+manhood in the boy, to whose training he had devoted the past nineteen
+years of his life.
+
+As Father Claude climbed down from his donkey -- fat people do not
+"dismount" -- a half dozen young squires ran forward to assist him, and to
+lead the animal to the stables.
+
+The good priest called each of his willing helpers by name, asking a
+question here, passing a merry joke there with the ease and familiarity
+that bespoke mutual affection and old acquaintance.
+
+As he passed in through the great gate, the men-at-arms threw him laughing,
+though respectful, welcomes and within the great court, beautified with
+smooth lawn, beds of gorgeous plants, fountains, statues and small shrubs
+and bushes, he came upon the giant, Red Shandy, now the principal
+lieutenant of Norman of Torn.
+
+"Good morrow, Saint Claude !" cried the burly ruffian.  "Hast come to save
+our souls, or damn us ?  What manner of sacrilege have we committed now, or
+have we merited the blessings of Holy Church ?  Dost come to scold, or
+praise ?"
+
+"Neither, thou unregenerate villain," cried the priest, laughing.  "Though
+methinks ye merit chiding for the grievous poor courtesy with which thou
+didst treat the great Bishop of Norwich the past week."
+
+"Tut, tut, Father," replied Red Shandy.  "We did but aid him to adhere more
+closely to the injunctions and precepts of Him whose servant and disciple
+he claims to be.  Were it not better for an Archbishop of His Church to
+walk in humility and poverty among His people, than to be ever surrounded
+with the temptations of fine clothing, jewels and much gold, to say nothing
+of two sumpter beasts heavy laden with runlets of wine ?"
+
+"I warrant his temptations were less by at least as many runlets of wine as
+may be borne by two sumpter beasts when thou, red robber, had finished with
+him," exclaimed Father Claude.
+
+"Yes, Father," laughed the great fellow, "for the sake of Holy Church, I
+did indeed confiscate that temptation completely, and if you must needs
+have proof in order to absolve me from my sins, come with me now and you
+shall sample the excellent discrimination which the Bishop of Norwich
+displays in the selection of his temptations."
+
+"They tell me you left the great man quite destitute of finery, Red
+Shandy, " continued Father Claude, as he locked his arm in that of the
+outlaw and proceeded toward the castle.
+
+"One garment was all that Norman of Torn would permit him, and as the sun
+was hot overhead, he selected for the Bishop a bassinet for that single
+article of apparel, to protect his tonsured pate from the rays of old sol.
+Then, fearing that it might be stolen from him by some vandals of the road,
+he had One Eye Kanty rivet it at each side of the gorget so that it could
+not be removed by other than a smithy, and thus, strapped face to tail upon
+a donkey, he sent the great Bishop of Norwich rattling down the dusty road
+with his head, at least, protected from the idle gaze of whomsoever he
+might chance to meet.  Forty stripes he gave to each of the Bishop's
+retinue for being abroad in bad company; but come, here we are where you
+shall have the wine as proof of my tale."
+
+As the two sat sipping the Bishop's good Canary, the little old man of Torn
+entered.  He spoke to Father Claude in a surly tone, asking him if he knew
+aught of the whereabouts of Norman of Torn.
+
+"We have seen nothing of him since, some three days gone, he rode out in
+the direction of your cottage," he concluded.
+
+"Why, yes," said the priest, "I saw him that day.  He had an adventure with
+several knights from the castle of Peter of Colfax, from whom he rescued a
+damsel whom I suspect from the trappings of her palfrey to be of the house
+of Montfort.  Together they rode north, but thy son did not say whither or
+for what purpose.  His only remark, as he donned his armor, while the girl
+waited without, was that I should now behold the falcon guarding the dove.
+Hast he not returned ?"
+
+"No," said the old man, "and doubtless his adventure is of a nature in line
+with thy puerile and effeminate teachings.  Had he followed my training,
+without thy accurst priestly interference, he had made an iron-barred nest
+in Torn for many of the doves of thy damned English nobility.  An' thou
+leave him not alone, he will soon be seeking service in the household of
+the King."
+
+"Where, perchance, he might be more at home than here," said the priest
+quietly.
+
+"Why say you that ?" snapped the little old man, eyeing Father Claude
+narrowly.
+
+"Oh," laughed the priest, "because he whose power and mien be even more
+kingly than the King's would rightly grace the royal palace," but he had
+not failed to note the perturbation his remark had caused, nor did his
+off-hand reply entirely deceive the old man.
+
+At this juncture, a squire entered to say that Shandy's presence was
+required at the gates, and that worthy, with a sorrowing and regretful
+glance at the unemptied flagon, left the room.
+
+For a few moments, the two men sat in meditative silence, which was
+presently broken by the old man of Torn.
+
+"Priest," he said, "thy ways with my son are, as you know, not to my
+liking.  It were needless that he should have wasted so much precious time
+from swordplay to learn the useless art of letters.  Of what benefit may a
+knowledge of Latin be to one whose doom looms large before him.  It may be
+years and again it may be but months, but as sure as there be a devil in
+hell, Norman of Torn will swing from a king's gibbet.  And thou knowst it,
+and he too, as well as I.  The things which thou hast taught him be above
+his station, and the hopes and ambitions they inspire will but make his end
+the bitterer for him.  Of late I have noted that he rides upon the highway
+with less enthusiasm than was his wont, but he has gone too far ever to go
+back now; nor is there where to go back to.  What has he ever been other
+than outcast and outlaw ?  What hopes could you have engendered in his
+breast greater than to be hated and feared among his blood enemies ?"
+
+"I knowst not thy reasons, old man," replied the priest, "for devoting thy
+life to the ruining of his, and what I guess at be such as I dare not
+voice; but let us understand each other once and for all.  For all thou
+dost and hast done to blight and curse the nobleness of his nature, I have
+done and shall continue to do all in my power to controvert.  As thou hast
+been his bad angel, so shall I try to be his good angel, and when all is
+said and done and Norman of Torn swings from the King's gibbet, as I only
+too well fear he must, there will be more to mourn his loss than there be
+to curse him.
+
+"His friends are from the ranks of the lowly, but so too were the friends
+and followers of our Dear Lord Jesus; so that shall be more greatly to his
+honor than had he preyed upon the already unfortunate.
+
+"Women have never been his prey; that also will be spoken of to his honor
+when he is gone, and that he has been cruel to men will be forgotten in the
+greater glory of his mercy to the weak.
+
+"Whatever be thy object: whether revenge or the natural bent of a cruel and
+degraded mind, I know not; but if any be curst because of the Outlaw of
+Torn, it will be thou -- I had almost said, unnatural father; but I do not
+believe a single drop of thy debased blood flows in the veins of him thou
+callest son."
+
+The grim old man of Torn had sat motionless throughout this indictment, his
+face, somewhat pale, was drawn into lines of malevolent hatred and rage,
+but he permitted Father Claude to finish without interruption.
+
+"Thou hast made thyself and thy opinions quite clear," he said bitterly,
+"but I be glad to know just how thou standeth.  In the past there has been
+peace between us, though no love; now let us both understand that it be war
+and hate.  My life work is cut out for me.  Others, like thyself, have
+stood in my path, yet today I am here, but where are they ?  Dost
+understand me, priest ?" And the old man leaned far across the table so
+that his eyes, burning with an insane fire of venom, blazed but a few
+inches from those of the priest.
+
+Father Claude returned the look with calm level gaze.
+
+"I understand," he said, and, rising, left the castle.
+
+Shortly after he had reached his cottage, a loud knock sounded at the door,
+which immediately swung open without waiting the formality of permission.
+Father Claude looked up to see the tall figure of Norman of Torn, and his
+face lighted with a pleased smile of welcome.
+
+"Greetings, my son," said the priest.
+
+"And to thee, Father," replied the outlaw, "And what may be the news of
+Torn.  I have been absent for several days.  Is all well at the castle ?"
+
+"All be well at the castle," replied Father Claude, "if by that you mean
+have none been captured or hanged for their murders.  Ah, my boy, why wilt
+thou not give up this wicked life of thine ?  It has never been my way to
+scold or chide thee, yet always hath my heart ached for each crime laid at
+the door of Norman of Torn."
+
+"Come, come, Father," replied the outlaw, "what dost I that I have not good
+example for from the barons, and the King, and Holy Church.  Murder, theft,
+rapine !  Passeth a day over England which sees not one or all perpetrated
+in the name of some of these ?
+
+"Be it wicked for Norman of Torn to prey upon the wolf, yet righteous for
+the wolf to tear the sheep ?  Methinks not.  Only do I collect from those
+who have more than they need, from my natural enemies; while they prey upon
+those who have naught.
+
+"Yet," and his manner suddenly changed, "I do not love it, Father.  That
+thou know.  I would that there might be some way out of it, but there is
+none.
+
+"If I told you why I wished it, you would be surprised indeed, nor can I
+myself understand; but, of a verity, my greatest wish to be out of this
+life is due to the fact that I crave the association of those very enemies
+I have been taught to hate.  But it is too late, Father, there can be but
+one end and that the lower end of a hempen rope."
+
+"No, my son, there is another way, an honorable way," replied the good
+Father.  "In some foreign clime there be opportunities abundant for such as
+thee.  France offers a magnificent future to such a soldier as Norman of
+Torn.  In the court of Louis, you would take your place among the highest
+of the land.  You be rich and brave and handsome.  Nay do not raise your
+hand.  You be all these and more, for you have learning far beyond the
+majority of nobles, and you have a good heart and a true chivalry of
+character.  With such wondrous gifts, naught could bar your way to the
+highest pinnacles of power and glory, while here you have no future beyond
+the halter.  Canst thou hesitate, Norman of Torn ?"
+
+The young man stood silent for a moment, then he drew his hand across his
+eyes as though to brush away a vision.
+
+"There be a reason, Father, why I must remain in England for a time at
+least, though the picture you put is indeed wondrous alluring."
+
+And the reason was Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+The visit of Bertrade de Montfort with her friend Mary de Stutevill was
+drawing to a close.  Three weeks had passed since Roger de Conde had ridden
+out from the portals of Stutevill and many times the handsome young
+knight's name had been on the lips of his fair hostess and her fairer
+friend.
+
+Today the two girls roamed slowly through the gardens of the great court,
+their arms about each other's waists, pouring the last confidences into
+each other's ears, for tomorrow Bertrade had elected to return to
+Leicester.
+
+"Methinks thou be very rash indeed, my Bertrade," said Mary.  "Wert my
+father here he would, I am sure, not permit thee to leave with only the
+small escort which we be able to give."
+
+"Fear not, Mary," replied Bertrade.  "Five of thy father's knights be ample
+protection for so short a journey.  By evening it will have been
+accomplished; and, as the only one I fear in these parts received such a
+sound set back from Roger de Conde recently, I do not think he will venture
+again to molest me."
+
+"But what about the Devil of Torn, Bertrade ?" urged Mary.  "Only
+yestereve, you wot, one of Lord de Grey's men-at-arms came limping to us
+with the news of the awful carnage the foul fiend had wrought on his
+master's household.  He be abroad, Bertrade, and I canst think of naught
+more horrible than to fall into his hands."
+
+"Why, Mary, thou didst but recently say thy very self that Norman of Torn
+was most courteous to thee when he sacked this, thy father's castle.  How
+be it thou so soon has changed thy mind ?"
+
+"Yes, Bertrade, he was indeed respectful then, but who knows what horrid
+freak his mind may take, and they do say that he be cruel beyond compare.
+Again, forget not that thou be Leicester's daughter and Henry's niece;
+against both of whom the Outlaw of Torn openly swears his hatred and his
+vengeance.  Oh, Bertrade, wait but for a day or so, I be sure my father
+must return ere then, and fifty knights shall accompany thee instead of
+five."
+
+"What be fifty knights against Norman of Torn, Mary ?  Thy reasoning is on
+a parity with thy fears, both have flown wide of the mark.
+
+"If I am to meet with this wild ruffian, it were better that five knights
+were sacrificed than fifty, for either number would be but a mouthful to
+that horrid horde of unhung murderers.  No, Mary, I shall start tomorrow
+and your good knights shall return the following day with the best of word
+from me."
+
+"If thou wilst, thou wilst," cried Mary petulantly.  "Indeed it were plain
+that thou be a De Montfort; that race whose historic bravery be second only
+to their historic stubbornness."
+
+Bertrade de Montfort laughed, and kissed her friend upon the cheek.
+
+"Mayhap I shall find the brave Roger de Conde again upon the highroad to
+protect me.  Then indeed shall I send back your five knights, for of a
+truth, his blade is more powerful than that of any ten men I ere saw fight
+before."
+
+"Methinks," said Mary, still peeved at her friend's determination to leave
+on the morrow, "that should you meet the doughty Sir Roger all unarmed,
+that still would you send back my father's knights."
+
+Bertrade flushed, and then bit her lip as she felt the warm blood mount to
+her cheek.
+
+"Thou be a fool, Mary," she said.
+
+Mary broke into a joyful, teasing laugh; hugely enjoying the discomfiture
+of the admission the tell-tale flush proclaimed.
+
+"Ah, I did but guess how thy heart and thy mind tended, Bertrade; but now I
+seest that I divined all too truly.  He be indeed good to look upon, but
+what knowest thou of him ?"
+
+"Hush, Mary !" commanded Bertrade.  "Thou know not what thou sayest.  I
+would not wipe my feet upon him, I care naught whatever for him, and
+then -- it has been three weeks since he rode out from Stutevill and no
+word hath he sent."
+
+"Oh, ho," cried the little plague, "so there lies the wind ?  My Lady would
+not wipe her feet upon him, but she be sore vexed that he has sent her no
+word.  Mon Dieu, but thou hast strange notions, Bertrade."
+
+"I will not talk with you, Mary," cried Bertrade, stamping her sandaled
+foot, and with a toss of her pretty head she turned abruptly toward the
+castle.
+
+In a small chamber in the castle of Colfax two men sat at opposite sides of
+a little table.  The one, Peter of Colfax, was short and very stout.  His
+red, bloated face, bleary eyes and bulbous nose bespoke the manner of his
+life; while his thick lips, the lower hanging large and flabby over his
+receding chin, indicated the base passions to which his life and been
+given.  His companion was a little, grim, gray man but his suit of armor
+and closed helm gave no hint to his host of whom his guest might be.  It
+was the little armored man who was speaking.
+
+"Is it not enough that I offer to aid you, Sir Peter," he said, "that you
+must have my reasons ?  Let it go that my hate of Leicester be the passion
+which moves me.  Thou failed in thy attempt to capture the maiden; give me
+ten knights and I will bring her to you."
+
+"How knowest thou she rides out tomorrow for her father's castle ?" asked
+Peter of Colfax.
+
+"That again be no concern of thine, my friend, but I do know it, and, if
+thou wouldst have her, be quick, for we should ride out tonight that we may
+take our positions by the highway in ample time tomorrow."
+
+Still Peter of Colfax hesitated, he feared this might be a ruse of
+Leicester's to catch him in some trap.  He did not know his guest -- the
+fellow might want the girl for himself and be taking this method of
+obtaining the necessary assistance to capture her.
+
+"Come," said the little, armored man irritably.  "I cannot bide here
+forever.  Make up thy mind; it be nothing to me other than my revenge, and
+if thou wilst not do it, I shall hire the necessary ruffians and then not
+even thou shalt see Bertrade de Montfort more."
+
+This last threat decided the Baron.
+
+"It is agreed," he said.  "The men shall ride out with you in half an
+hour.  Wait below in the courtyard."
+
+When the little man had left the apartment, Peter of Colfax summoned his
+squire whom he had send to him at once one of his faithful henchmen.
+
+"Guy," said Peter of Colfax, as the man entered, "ye made a rare fizzle of
+a piece of business some weeks ago.  Ye wot of which I speak ?"
+
+"Yes, My Lord."
+
+"It chances that on the morrow ye may have opportunity to retrieve thy
+blunder.  Ride out with ten men where the stranger who waits in the
+courtyard below shall lead ye, and come not back without that which ye lost
+to a handful of men before.  You understand ?"
+
+"Yes, My Lord !"
+
+"And, Guy, I half mistrust this fellow who hath offered to assist us.  At
+the first sign of treachery, fall upon him with all thy men and slay him.
+Tell the others that these be my orders."
+
+"Yes, My Lord.  When do we ride ?"
+
+"At once.  You may go."
+
+The morning that Bertrade de Montfort had chosen to return to her father's
+castle dawned gray and threatening.  In vain did Mary de Stutevill plead
+with her friend to give up the idea of setting out upon such a dismal day
+and without sufficient escort, but Bertrade de Montfort was firm.
+
+"Already have I overstayed my time three days, and it is not lightly that
+even I, his daughter, fail in obedience to Simon de Montfort.  I shall have
+enough to account for as it be.  Do not urge me to add even one more day to
+my excuses.  And again, perchance, my mother and my father may be sore
+distressed by my continued absence.  No, Mary, I must ride today." And so
+she did, with the five knights that could be spared from the castle's
+defence.
+
+Scarcely half an hour had elapsed before a cold drizzle set in, so that
+they were indeed a sorry company that splashed along the muddy road,
+wrapped in mantle and surcoat.  As they proceeded, the rain and wind
+increased in volume, until it was being driven into their faces in such
+blinding gusts that they must needs keep their eyes closed and trust to the
+instincts of their mounts.
+
+Less than half the journey had been accomplished.  They were winding across
+a little hollow toward a low ridge covered with dense forest, into the
+somber shadows of which the road wound.  There was a glint of armor among
+the drenched foliage, but the rain-buffeted eyes of the riders saw it not.
+On they came, their patient horses plodding slowly through the sticky road
+and hurtling storm.
+
+Now they were half way up the ridge's side.  There was a movement in the
+dark shadows of the grim wood, and then, without cry or warning, a band of
+steel-clad horsemen broke forth with couched spears.  Charging at full run
+down upon them, they overthrew three of the girl's escort before a blow
+could be struck in her defense.  Her two remaining guardians wheeled to
+meet the return attack, and nobly did they acquit themselves, for it took
+the entire eleven who were pitted against them to overcome and slay the
+two.
+
+In the melee, none had noticed the girl, but presently one of her
+assailants, a little, grim, gray man, discovered that she had put spurs to
+her palfrey and escaped.  Calling to his companions he set out at a rapid
+pace in pursuit.
+
+Reckless of the slippery road and the blinding rain, Bertrade de Montfort
+urged her mount into a wild run, for she had recognized the arms of Peter
+of Colfax on the shields of several of the attacking party.
+
+Nobly, the beautiful Arab bent to her call for speed.  The great beasts of
+her pursuers, bred in Normandy and Flanders, might have been tethered in
+their stalls for all the chance they had of overtaking the flying white
+steed that fairly split the gray rain as lightning flies through the
+clouds.
+
+But for the fiendish cunning of the little grim, gray man's foresight,
+Bertrade de Montfort would have made good her escape that day.  As it was,
+however, her fleet mount had carried her but two hundred yards ere, in the
+midst of the dark wood, she ran full upon a rope stretched across the
+roadway between two trees.
+
+As the horse fell, with a terrible lunge, tripped by the stout rope,
+Bertrade de Montfort was thrown far before him, where she lay, a little,
+limp bedraggled figure, in the mud of the road.
+
+There they found her.  The little, grim, gray man did not even dismount, so
+indifferent was he to her fate; dead or in the hands of Peter of Colfax, it
+was all the same to him.  In either event, his purpose would be
+accomplished, and Bertrade de Montfort would no longer lure Norman of Torn
+from the path he had laid out for him.
+
+That such an eventuality threatened, he knew from one Spizo the Spaniard,
+the single traitor in the service of Norman of Torn, whose mean aid the
+little grim, gray man had purchased since many months to spy upon the
+comings and goings of the great outlaw.
+
+The men of Peter of Colfax gathered up the lifeless form of Bertrade de
+Montfort and placed it across the saddle before one of their number.
+
+"Come," said the man called Guy, "if there be life left in her, we must
+hasten to Sir Peter before it be extinct."
+
+"I leave ye here," said the little old man.  "My part of the business is
+done."
+
+And so he sat watching them until they had disappeared in the forest toward
+the castle of Colfax.
+
+Then he rode back to the scene of the encounter where lay the five knights
+of Sir John de Stutevill.  Three were already dead, the other two, sorely
+but not mortally wounded, lay groaning by the roadside.
+
+The little grim, gray man dismounted as he came abreast of them and, with
+his long sword, silently finished the two wounded men.  Then, drawing his
+dagger, he made a mark upon the dead foreheads of each of the five, and
+mounting, rode rapidly toward Torn.
+
+"And if one fact be not enough," he muttered, "that mark upon the dead will
+quite effectually stop further intercourse between the houses of Torn and
+Leicester."
+
+Henry de Montfort, son of Simon, rode fast and furious at the head of a
+dozen of his father's knights on the road to Stutevill.
+
+Bertrade de Montfort was so long overdue that the Earl and Princess
+Eleanor, his wife, filled with grave apprehensions, had posted their oldest
+son off to the castle of John de Stutevill to fetch her home.
+
+With the wind and rain at their backs, the little party rode rapidly along
+the muddy road, until late in the afternoon they came upon a white palfrey
+standing huddled beneath a great oak, his arched back toward the driving
+storm.
+
+"By God," cried De Montfort, "tis my sister's own Abdul.  There be
+something wrong here indeed." But a rapid search of the vicinity, and loud
+calls brought no further evidence of the girl's whereabouts, so they
+pressed on toward Stutevill.
+
+Some two miles beyond the spot where the white palfrey had been found, they
+came upon the dead bodies of the five knights who had accompanied Bertrade
+from Stutevill.
+
+Dismounting, Henry de Montfort examined the bodies of the fallen men.  The
+arms upon shield and helm confirmed his first fear that these had been
+Bertrade's escort from Stutevill.
+
+As he bent over them to see if he recognized any of the knights, there
+stared up into his face from the foreheads of the dead men the dreaded
+sign, NT, scratched there with a dagger's point.
+
+"The curse of God be on him !" cried De Montfort.  "It be the work of the
+Devil of Torn, my gentlemen," he said to his followers.  "Come, we need no
+further guide to our destination." And, remounting, the little party
+spurred back toward Torn.
+
+When Bertrade de Montfort regained her senses, she was in bed in a strange
+room, and above her bent an old woman; a repulsive, toothless old woman,
+whose smile was but a fangless snarl.
+
+"Ho, ho !" she croaked.  "The bride waketh.  I told My Lord that it would
+take more than a tumble in the mud to kill a De Montfort.  Come, come, now,
+arise and clothe thyself, for the handsome bridegroom canst scarce restrain
+his eager desire to fold thee in his arms.  Below in the great hall he
+paces to and fro, the red blood mantling his beauteous countenance."
+
+"Who be ye ?" cried Bertrade de Montfort, her mind still dazed from the
+effects of her fall.  "Where am I ?" and then, "O, Mon Dieu !" as she
+remembered the events of the afternoon; and the arms of Colfax upon the
+shields of the attacking party.  In an instant she realized the horror of
+her predicament; its utter hopelessness.
+
+Beast though he was, Peter of Colfax stood high in the favor of the King;
+and the fact that she was his niece would scarce aid her cause with Henry,
+for it was more than counter-balanced by the fact that she was the daughter
+of Simon de Montfort, whom he feared and hated.
+
+In the corridor without, she heard the heavy tramp of approaching feet, and
+presently a man's voice at the door.
+
+"Within there, Coll !  Hast the damsel awakened from her swoon ?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Peter," replied the old woman, "I was but just urging her to
+arise and clothe herself, saying that you awaited her below."
+
+"Haste then, My Lady Bertrade," called the man, "no harm will be done thee
+if thou showest the good sense I give thee credit for.  I will await thee
+in the great hall, or, if thou prefer, wilt come to thee here."
+
+The girl paled, more in loathing and contempt than in fear, but the tones
+of her answer were calm and level.
+
+"I will see thee below, Sir Peter, anon," and rising, she hastened to
+dress, while the receding footsteps of the Baron diminished down the
+stairway which led from the tower room in which she was imprisoned.
+
+The old woman attempted to draw her into conversation, but the girl would
+not talk.  Her whole mind was devoted to weighing each possible means of
+escape.
+
+A half hour later, she entered the great hall of the castle of Peter of
+Colfax.  The room was empty.  Little change had been wrought in the
+apartment since the days of Ethelwolf.  As the girl's glance ranged the
+hall in search of her jailer it rested upon the narrow, unglazed windows
+beyond which lay freedom.  Would she ever again breathe God's pure air
+outside these stifling walls ?  These grimy hateful walls !  Black as the
+inky rafters and wainscot except for occasional splotches a few shades less
+begrimed, where repairs had been made.  As her eyes fell upon the trophies
+of war and chase which hung there her lips curled in scorn, for she knew
+that they were acquisitions by inheritance rather than by the personal
+prowess of the present master of Colfax.
+
+A single cresset lighted the chamber, while the flickering light from a
+small wood fire upon one of the two great hearths seemed rather to
+accentuate the dim shadows of the place.
+
+Bertrade crossed the room and leaned against a massive oak table, blackened
+by age and hard usage to the color of the beams above, dented and nicked by
+the pounding of huge drinking horns and heavy swords when wild and lusty
+brawlers had been moved to applause by the lay of some wandering minstrel,
+or the sterner call of their mighty chieftains for the oath of fealty.
+
+Her wandering eyes took in the dozen benches and the few rude, heavy chairs
+which completed the rough furnishings of this rough room, and she
+shuddered.  One little foot tapped sullenly upon the disordered floor which
+was littered with a miscellany of rushes interspread with such bones and
+scraps of food as the dogs had rejected or overlooked.
+
+But to none of these surroundings did Bertrade de Montfort give but passing
+heed; she looked for the man she sought that she might quickly have the
+encounter over and learn what fate the future held in store for her.
+
+Her quick glance had shown her that the room was quite empty, and that in
+addition to the main doorway at the lower end of the apartment, where she
+had entered, there was but one other door leading from the hall.  This was
+at one side, and as it stood ajar she could see that it led into a small
+room, apparently a bedchamber.
+
+As she stood facing the main doorway, a panel opened quietly behind her and
+directly back of where the thrones had stood in past times.  From the black
+mouth of the aperture stepped Peter of Colfax.  Silently, he closed the
+panel after him, and with soundless steps, advanced toward the girl.  At
+the edge of the raised dais he halted, rattling his sword to attract her
+attention.
+
+If his aim had been to unnerve her by the suddenness and mystery of his
+appearance, he failed signally, for she did not even turn her head as she
+said:
+
+"What explanation hast thou to make, Sir Peter, for this base treachery
+against thy neighbor's daughter and thy sovereign's niece ?"
+
+"When fond hearts be thwarted by a cruel parent," replied the pot-bellied
+old beast in a soft and fawning tone, "love must still find its way; and so
+thy gallant swain hath dared the wrath of thy great father and majestic
+uncle, and lays his heart at thy feet, O beauteous Bertrade, knowing full
+well that thine hath been hungering after it since we didst first avow our
+love to thy hard-hearted sire.  See, I kneel to thee, my dove !" And with
+cracking joints the fat baron plumped down upon his marrow bones.
+
+Bertrade turned and as she saw him her haughty countenance relaxed into a
+sneering smile.
+
+"Thou art a fool, Sir Peter," she said, "and, at that, the worst species of
+fool -- an ancient fool.  It is useless to pursue thy cause, for I will
+have none of thee.  Let me hence, if thou be a gentleman, and no word of
+what hath transpired shall ever pass my lips.  But let me go, 'tis all I
+ask, and it is useless to detain me for I cannot give what you would have.
+I do not love you, nor ever can I."
+
+Her first words had caused the red of humiliation to mottle his already
+ruby visage to a semblance of purple, and now, as he attempted to rise with
+dignity, he was still further covered with confusion by the fact that his
+huge stomach made it necessary for him to go upon all fours before he could
+rise, so that he got up much after the manner of a cow, raising his stern
+high in air in a most ludicrous fashion.  As he gained his feet he saw the
+girl turn her head from him to hide the laughter on her face.
+
+"Return to thy chamber," he thundered.  "I will give thee until tomorrow to
+decide whether thou wilt accept Peter of Colfax as thy husband, or take
+another position in his household which will bar thee for all time from the
+society of thy kind."
+
+The girl turned toward him, the laugh still playing on her lips.
+
+"I will be wife to no buffoon; to no clumsy old clown; to no debauched,
+degraded parody of a man.  And as for thy other rash threat, thou hast not
+the guts to put thy wishes into deeds, thou craven coward, for well ye know
+that Simon de Montfort would cut out thy foul heart with his own hand if he
+ever suspected thou wert guilty of speaking of such to me, his daughter."
+And Bertrade de Montfort swept from the great hall, and mounted to her
+tower chamber in the ancient Saxon stronghold of Colfax.
+
+The old woman kept watch over her during the night and until late the
+following afternoon, when Peter of Colfax summoned his prisoner before him
+once more.  So terribly had the old hag played upon the girl's fears that
+she felt fully certain that the Baron was quite equal to his dire threat,
+and so she had again been casting about for some means of escape or delay.
+
+The room in which she was imprisoned was in the west tower of the castle,
+fully a hundred feet above the moat, which the single embrasure
+overlooked.  There was, therefore, no avenue of escape in this direction.
+The solitary door was furnished with huge oaken bars, and itself composed
+of mighty planks of the same wood, cross barred with iron.
+
+If she could but get the old woman out, thought Bertrade, she could
+barricade herself within and thus delay, at least, her impending fate in
+the hope that succor might come from some source.  But her most subtle
+wiles proved ineffectual in ridding her, even for a moment, of her harpy
+jailer; and now that the final summons had come, she was beside herself for
+a lack of means to thwart her captor.
+
+Her dagger had been taken from her, but one hung from the girdle of the old
+woman and this Bertrade determined to have.
+
+Feigning trouble with the buckle of her own girdle, she called upon the old
+woman to aid her, and as the hag bent her head close to the girl's body to
+see what was wrong with the girdle clasp, Bertrade reached quickly to her
+side and snatched the weapon from its sheath.  Quickly she sprang back from
+the old woman who, with a cry of anger and alarm, rushed upon her.
+
+"Back !" cried the girl.  "Stand back, old hag, or thou shalt feel the
+length of thine own blade."
+
+The woman hesitated and then fell to cursing and blaspheming in a most
+horrible manner, at the same time calling for help.
+
+Bertrade backed to the door, commanding the old woman to remain where she
+was, on pain of death, and quickly dropped the mighty bars into place.
+Scarcely had the last great bolt been slipped than Peter of Colfax, with a
+dozen servants and men-at-arms, were pounding loudly upon the outside.
+
+"What's wrong within, Coll," cried the Baron.
+
+"The wench has wrested my dagger from me and is murdering me," shrieked the
+old woman.
+
+"An' that I will truly do, Peter of Colfax," spoke Bertrade, "if you do not
+immediately send for my friends to conduct me from thy castle, for I will
+not step my foot from this room until I know that mine own people stand
+without."
+
+Peter of Colfax pled and threatened, commanded and coaxed, but all in
+vain.  So passed the afternoon, and as darkness settled upon the castle the
+Baron desisted from his attempts, intending to starve his prisoner out.
+
+Within the little room, Bertrade de Montfort sat upon a bench guarding her
+prisoner, from whom she did not dare move her eyes for a single second.
+All that long night she sat thus, and when morning dawned, it found her
+position unchanged, her tired eyes still fixed upon the hag.
+
+Early in the morning, Peter of Colfax resumed his endeavors to persuade her
+to come out; he even admitted defeat and promised her safe conduct to her
+father's castle, but Bertrade de Montfort was not one to be fooled by his
+lying tongue.
+
+"Then will I starve you out," he cried at length.
+
+"Gladly will I starve in preference to falling into thy foul hands,"
+replied the girl.  "But thy old servant here will starve first, for she be
+very old and not so strong as I.  Therefore, how will it profit you to kill
+two and still be robbed of thy prey ?"
+
+Peter of Colfax entertained no doubt but that his fair prisoner would carry
+out her threat and so he set his men to work with cold chisels, axes and
+saws upon the huge door.
+
+For hours, they labored upon that mighty work of defence, and it was late
+at night ere they made a little opening large enough to admit a hand and
+arm, but the first one intruded within the room to raise the bars was drawn
+quickly back with a howl of pain from its owner.  Thus the keen dagger in
+the girl's hand put an end to all hopes of entering without completely
+demolishing the door.
+
+To this work, the men without then set themselves diligently while Peter of
+Colfax renewed his entreaties, through the small opening they had made.
+Bertrade replied but once.
+
+"Seest thou this poniard ?" she asked.  "When that door falls, this point
+enters my heart.  There is nothing beyond that door, with thou, poltroon,
+to which death in this little chamber would not be preferable."
+
+As she spoke, she turned toward the man she was addressing, for the first
+time during all those weary, hideous hours removing her glance from the old
+hag.  It was enough.  Silently, but with the quickness of a tigress the old
+woman was upon her back, one claw-like paw grasping the wrist which held
+the dagger.
+
+"Quick, My Lord !" she shrieked, "the bolts, quick."
+
+Instantly Peter of Colfax ran his arm through the tiny opening in the door
+and a second later four of his men rushed to the aid of the old woman.
+
+Easily they wrested the dagger from Bertrade's fingers, and at the Baron's
+bidding, they dragged her to the great hall below.
+
+As his retainers left the room at his command, Peter of Colfax strode back
+and forth upon the rushes which strewed the floor.  Finally he stopped
+before the girl standing rigid in the center of the room.
+
+"Hast come to thy senses yet, Bertrade de Montfort ?" he asked angrily.  "I
+have offered you your choice; to be the honored wife of Peter of Colfax,
+or, by force, his mistress.  The good priest waits without, what be your
+answer now ?"
+
+"The same as it has been these past two days," she replied with haughty
+scorn.  "The same that it shall always be.  I will be neither wife nor
+mistress to a coward; a hideous, abhorrent pig of a man.  I would die, it
+seems, if I felt the touch of your hand upon me.  You do not dare to touch
+me, you craven.  I, the daughter of an earl, the niece of a king, wed to
+the warty toad, Peter of Colfax !"
+
+"Hold, chit !" cried the Baron, livid with rage.  "You have gone too far.
+Enough of this; and you love me not now, I shall learn you to love ere the
+sun rises." And with a vile oath he grasped the girl roughly by the arm,
+and dragged her toward the little doorway at the side of the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+For three weeks after his meeting with Bertrade de Montfort and his sojourn
+at the castle of John de Stutevill, Norman of Torn was busy with his wild
+horde in reducing and sacking the castle of John de Grey, a royalist baron
+who had captured and hanged two of the outlaw's fighting men; and never
+again after his meeting with the daughter of the chief of the barons did
+Norman of Torn raise a hand against the rebels or their friends.
+
+Shortly after his return to Torn, following the successful outcome of his
+expedition, the watch upon the tower reported the approach of a dozen armed
+knights.  Norman sent Red Shandy to the outer walls to learn the mission of
+the party, for visitors seldom came to this inaccessible and unhospitable
+fortress; and he well knew that no party of a dozen knights would venture
+with hostile intent within the clutches of his great band of villains.
+
+The great red giant soon returned to say that it was Henry de Montfort,
+oldest son of the Earl of Leicester, who had come under a flag of truce and
+would have speech with the master of Torn.
+
+"Admit them, Shandy," commanded Norman of Torn, "I will speak with them
+here."
+
+When the party, a few moments later, was ushered into his presence it found
+itself facing a mailed knight with drawn visor.
+
+Henry de Montfort advanced with haughty dignity until he faced the outlaw.
+
+"Be ye Norman of Torn ?" he asked.  And, did he try to conceal the hatred
+and loathing which he felt, he was poorly successful.
+
+"They call me so," replied the visored knight.  "And what may bring a De
+Montfort after so many years to visit his old neighbor ?"
+
+"Well ye know what brings me, Norman of Torn," replied the young man.  "It
+is useless to waste words, and we cannot resort to arms, for you have us
+entirely in your power.  Name your price and it shall be paid, only be
+quick and let me hence with my sister."
+
+"What wild words be these, Henry de Montfort ?  Your sister !  What mean
+you ?"
+
+"Yes, my sister Bertrade, whom you stole upon the highroad two days since,
+after murdering the knights of John de Stutevill who were fetching her home
+from a visit upon the Baron's daughter.  We know that it was you for the
+foreheads of the dead men bore your devil's mark."
+
+"Shandy !" roared Norman of Torn.  "WHAT MEANS THIS ?  Who has been upon
+the road, attacking women, in my absence ?  You were here and in charge
+during my visit to my Lord de Grey.  As you value your hide, Shandy, the
+truth !"
+
+"Since you laid me low in the hut of the good priest, I have served you
+well, Norman of Torn.  You should know my loyalty by this time and that
+never have I lied to you.  No man of yours has done this thing, nor is it
+the first time that vile scoundrels have placed your mark upon their dead
+that they might thus escape suspicion, themselves."
+
+"Henry de Montfort," said Norman of Torn, turning to his visitor, "we of
+Torn bear no savory name, that I know full well, but no man may say that we
+unsheath our swords against women.  Your sister is not here.  I give you
+the word of honor of Norman of Torn.  Is it not enough ?"
+
+"They say you never lie," replied De Montfort.  "Would to God I knew who
+had done this thing, or which way to search for my sister."
+
+Norman of Torn made no reply, his thoughts were in wild confusion, and it
+was with difficulty that he hid the fierce anxiety of his heart or his rage
+against the perpetrators of this dastardly act which tore his whole being.
+
+In silence De Montfort turned and left, nor had his party scarce passed the
+drawbridge ere the castle of Torn was filled with hurrying men and the
+noise and uproar of a sudden call to arms.
+
+Some thirty minutes later, five hundred iron-clad horses carried their
+mailed riders beneath the portcullis of the grim pile, and Norman the
+Devil, riding at their head, spurred rapidly in the direction of the castle
+of Peter of Colfax.
+
+The great troop, winding down the rocky trail from Torn's buttressed gates,
+presented a picture of wild barbaric splendor.
+
+The armor of the men was of every style and metal from the ancient banded
+mail of the Saxon to the richly ornamented plate armor of Milan.  Gold and
+silver and precious stones set in plumed crest and breastplate and shield,
+and even in the steel spiked chamfrons of the horses' head armor showed the
+rich loot which had fallen to the portion of Norman of Torn's wild raiders.
+
+Fluttering pennons streamed from five hundred lance points, and the gray
+banner of Torn, with the black falcon's wing, flew above each of the five
+companies.  The great linden wood shields of the men were covered with gray
+leather and, in the upper right hand corner of each, was the black falcon's
+wing.  The surcoats of the riders were also uniform, being of dark gray
+villosa faced with black wolf skin, so that notwithstanding the richness of
+the armor and the horse trappings, there was a grim, gray warlike
+appearance to these wild companies that comported well with their
+reputation.
+
+Recruited from all ranks of society and from every civilized country of
+Europe, the great horde of Torn numbered in its ten companies serf and
+noble; Britain, Saxon, Norman, Dane, German, Italian and French, Scot, Pict
+and Irish.
+
+Here birth caused no distinctions; the escaped serf, with the gall marks of
+his brass collar still visible about his neck, rode shoulder to shoulder
+with the outlawed scion of a noble house.  The only requisites for
+admission to the troop were willingness and ability to fight, and an oath
+to obey the laws made by Norman of Torn.
+
+The little army was divided into ten companies of one hundred men, each
+company captained by a fighter of proven worth and ability.
+
+Our old friends Red Shandy, and John and James Flory led the first three
+companies, the remaining seven being under command of other seasoned
+veterans of a thousand fights.
+
+One Eye Kanty, owing to his early trade, held the always important post of
+chief armorer, while Peter the Hermit, the last of the five cut-throats
+whom Norman of Torn had bested that day, six years before, in the hut of
+Father Claude, had become majordomo of the great castle of Torn, which post
+included also the vital functions of quartermaster and commissary.
+
+The old man of Torn attended to the training of serf and squire in the art
+of war, for it was ever necessary to fill the gaps made in the companies,
+due to their constant encounters upon the highroad and their battles at the
+taking of some feudal castle; in which they did not always come off
+unscathed, though usually victorious.
+
+Today, as they wound west across the valley, Norman of Torn rode at the
+head of the cavalcade, which strung out behind him in a long column.  Above
+his gray steel armor, a falcon's wing rose from his crest.  It was the
+insignia which always marked him to his men in the midst of battle.  Where
+it waved might always be found the fighting and the honors, and about it
+they were wont to rally.
+
+Beside Norman of Torn rode the grim, gray, old man, silent and taciturn;
+nursing his deep hatred in the depths of his malign brain.
+
+At the head of their respective companies rode the five captains: Red
+Shandy; John Flory; Edwild the Serf; Emilio, Count de Gropello of Italy;
+and Sieur Ralph de la Campnee, of France.
+
+The hamlets and huts which they passed in the morning and early afternoon
+brought forth men, women and children to cheer and wave God-speed to them;
+but as they passed farther from the vicinity of Torn, where the black
+falcon wing was known more by the ferocity of its name than by the kindly
+deeds of the great outlaw to the lowly of his neighborhood, they saw only
+closed and barred doors with an occasional frightened face peering from a
+tiny window.
+
+It was midnight ere they sighted the black towers of Colfax silhouetted
+against the starry sky.  Drawing his men into the shadows of the forest a
+half mile from the castle, Norman of Torn rode forward with Shandy and some
+fifty men to a point as close as they could come without being observed.
+Here they dismounted and Norman of Torn crept stealthily forward alone.
+
+Taking advantage of every cover, he approached to the very shadows of the
+great gate without being detected.  In the castle, a light shone dimly from
+the windows of the great hall, but no other sign of life was apparent.  To
+his intense surprise, Norman of Torn found the drawbridge lowered and no
+sign of watchmen at the gate or upon the walls.
+
+As he had sacked this castle some two years since, he was familiar with its
+internal plan, and so he knew that through the scullery he could reach a
+small antechamber above, which let directly into the great hall.
+
+And so it happened that, as Peter of Colfax wheeled toward the door of the
+little room, he stopped short in terror, for there before him stood a
+strange knight in armor, with lowered visor and drawn sword.  The girl saw
+him too, and a look of hope and renewed courage overspread her face.
+
+"Draw !" commanded a low voice in English, "unless you prefer to pray, for
+you are about to die."
+
+"Who be ye, varlet ?" cried the Baron.  "Ho, John !  Ho, Guy !  To the
+rescue, quick !" he shrieked, and drawing his sword, he attempted to back
+quickly toward the main doorway of the hall; but the man in armor was upon
+him and forcing him to fight ere he had taken three steps.
+
+It had been short shrift for Peter of Colfax that night had not John and
+Guy and another of his henchmen rushed into the room with drawn swords.
+
+"Ware !  Sir Knight," cried the girl, as she saw the three knaves rushing
+to the aid of their master.
+
+Turning to meet their assault, the knight was forced to abandon the
+terror-stricken Baron for an instant, and again he had made for the doorway
+bent only on escape; but the girl had divined his intentions, and running
+quickly to the entrance, she turned the great lock and threw the key with
+all her might to the far corner of the hall.  In an instant she regretted
+her act, for she saw that where she might have reduced her rescuer's
+opponents by at least one, she had now forced the cowardly Baron to remain,
+and nothing fights more fiercely than a cornered rat.
+
+The knight was holding his own splendidly with the three retainers, and for
+an instant Bertrade de Montfort stood spell-bound by the exhibition of
+swordsmanship she was witnessing.
+
+Fighting the three alternately, in pairs and again all at the same time,
+the silent knight, though weighted by his heavy armor, forced them steadily
+back; his flashing blade seeming to weave a net of steel about them.
+Suddenly his sword stopped just for an instant, stopped in the heart of one
+of his opponents, and as the man lunged to the floor, it was flashing again
+close to the breasts of the two remaining men-at-arms.
+
+Another went down less than ten seconds later, and then the girl's
+attention was called to the face of the horrified Baron; Peter of Colfax
+was moving -- slowly and cautiously, he was creeping, from behind, toward
+the visored knight, and in his raised hand flashed a sharp dagger.
+
+For an instant, the girl stood frozen with horror, unable to move a finger
+or to cry out; but only for an instant, and then, regaining control of her
+muscles, she stooped quickly and, grasping a heavy foot-stool, hurled it
+full at Peter of Colfax.
+
+It struck him below the knees and toppled him to the floor just as the
+knight's sword passed through the throat of his final antagonist.
+
+As the Baron fell, he struck heavily upon a table which supported the only
+lighted cresset within the chamber.  In an instant, all was darkness.
+There was a rapid shuffling sound as of the scurrying of rats and then the
+quiet of the tomb settled upon the great hall.
+
+"Are you safe and unhurt, my Lady Bertrade ?" asked a grave English voice
+out of the darkness.
+
+"Quite, Sir Knight," she replied, "and you ?"
+
+"Not a scratch, but where is our good friend the Baron ?"
+
+"He lay here upon the floor but a moment since, and carried a thin long
+dagger in his hand.  Have a care, Sir Knight, he may even now be upon you."
+
+The knight did not answer, but she heard him moving boldly about the room.
+Soon he had found another lamp and made a light.  As its feeble rays slowly
+penetrated the black gloom, the girl saw the bodies of the three
+men-at-arms, the overturned table and lamp, and the visored knight; but
+Peter of Colfax was gone.
+
+The knight perceived his absence at the same time, but he only laughed a
+low, grim laugh.
+
+"He will not go far, My Lady Bertrade," he said.
+
+"How know you my name ?" she asked.  "Who may you be ?  I do not recognize
+your armor, and your breastplate bears no arms."
+
+He did not answer at once and her heart rose in her breast as it filled
+with the hope that her brave rescuer might be the same Roger de Conde who
+had saved her from the hirelings of Peter of Colfax but a few short weeks
+since.  Surely it was the same straight and mighty figure, and there was
+the marvelous swordplay as well.  It must be he, and yet Roger de Conde had
+spoken no English while this man spoke it well, though, it was true, with a
+slight French accent.
+
+"My Lady Bertrade, I be Norman of Torn," said the visored knight with quiet
+dignity.
+
+The girl's heart sank, and a feeling of cold fear crept through her.  For
+years that name had been the symbol of fierce cruelty, and mad hatred
+against her kind.  Little children were frightened into obedience by the
+vaguest hint that the Devil of Torn would get them, and grown men had come
+to whisper the name with grim, set lips.
+
+"Norman of Torn !" she whispered.  "May God have mercy on my soul !"
+
+Beneath the visored helm, a wave of pain and sorrow surged across the
+countenance of the outlaw, and a little shudder, as of a chill of
+hopelessness, shook his giant frame.
+
+"You need not fear, My Lady," he said sadly.  "You shall be in your
+father's castle of Leicester ere the sun marks noon.  And you will be safer
+under the protection of the hated Devil of Torn than with your own mighty
+father, or your royal uncle."
+
+"It is said that you never lie, Norman of Torn," spoke the girl, "and I
+believe you, but tell me why you thus befriend a De Montfort."
+
+"It is not for love of your father or your brothers, nor yet hatred of
+Peter of Colfax, nor neither for any reward whatsoever.  It pleases me to
+do as I do, that is all.  Come."
+
+He led her in silence to the courtyard and across the lowered drawbridge,
+to where they soon discovered a group of horsemen, and in answer to a low
+challenge from Shandy, Norman of Torn replied that it was he.
+
+"Take a dozen men, Shandy, and search yon hellhole.  Bring out to me,
+alive, Peter of Colfax, and My Lady's cloak and a palfrey -- and Shandy,
+when all is done as I say, you may apply the torch !  But no looting,
+Shandy."
+
+Shandy looked in surprise upon his leader, for the torch had never been a
+weapon of Norman of Torn, while loot, if not always the prime object of his
+many raids, was at least a very important consideration.
+
+The outlaw noticed the surprised hesitation of his faithful subaltern and
+signing him to listen, said:
+
+"Red Shandy, Norman of Torn has fought and sacked and pillaged for the love
+of it, and for a principle which was at best but a vague generality.
+Tonight we ride to redress a wrong done to My Lady Bertrade de Montfort,
+and that, Shandy, is a different matter.  The torch, Shandy, from tower to
+scullery, but in the service of My Lady, no looting."
+
+"Yes, My Lord," answered Shandy, and departed with his little detachment.
+
+In a half hour he returned with a dozen prisoners, but no Peter of Colfax.
+
+"He has flown, My Lord," the big fellow reported, and indeed it was true.
+Peter of Colfax had passed through the vaults beneath his castle and, by a
+long subterranean passage, had reached the quarters of some priests without
+the lines of Norman of Torn.  By this time, he was several miles on his way
+to the coast and France; for he had recognized the swordsmanship of the
+outlaw, and did not care to remain in England and face the wrath of both
+Norman of Torn and Simon de Montfort.
+
+"He will return," was the outlaw's only comment, when he had been fully
+convinced that the Baron had escaped.
+
+They watched until the castle had burst into flames in a dozen places, the
+prisoners huddled together in terror and apprehension, fully expecting a
+summary and horrible death.
+
+When Norman of Torn had assured himself that no human power could now save
+the doomed pile, he ordered that the march be taken up, and the warriors
+filed down the roadway behind their leader and Bertrade de Montfort,
+leaving their erstwhile prisoners sorely puzzled but unharmed and free.
+
+As they looked back, they saw the heavens red with the great flames that
+sprang high above the lofty towers.  Immense volumes of dense smoke rolled
+southward across the sky line.  Occasionally it would clear away from the
+burning castle for an instant to show the black walls pierced by their
+hundreds of embrasures, each lit up by the red of the raging fire within.
+It was a gorgeous, impressive spectacle, but one so common in those fierce,
+wild days, that none thought it worthy of more than a passing backward
+glance.
+
+Varied emotions filled the breasts of the several riders who wended their
+slow way down the mud-slippery road.  Norman of Torn was both elated and
+sad.  Elated that he had been in time to save this girl who awakened such
+strange emotions in his breast; sad that he was a loathesome thing in her
+eyes.  But that it was pure happiness just to be near her, sufficed him for
+the time; of the morrow, what use to think !  The little, grim, gray, old
+man of Torn nursed the spleen he did not dare vent openly, and cursed the
+chance that had sent Henry de Montfort to Torn to search for his sister;
+while the followers of the outlaw swore quietly over the vagary which had
+brought them on this long ride without either fighting or loot.
+
+Bertrade de Montfort was but filled with wonder that she should owe her
+life and honor to this fierce, wild cut-throat who had sworn especial
+hatred against her family, because of its relationship to the house of
+Plantagenet.  She could not fathom it, and yet, he seemed fair spoken for
+so rough a man; she wondered what manner of countenance might lie beneath
+that barred visor.
+
+Once the outlaw took his cloak from its fastenings at his saddle's cantel
+and threw it about the shoulders of the girl, for the night air was chilly,
+and again he dismounted and led her palfrey around a bad place in the road,
+lest the beast might slip and fall.
+
+She thanked him in her courtly manner for these services, but beyond that,
+no word passed between them, and they came, in silence, about midday within
+sight of the castle of Simon de Montfort.
+
+The watch upon the tower was thrown into confusion by the approach of so
+large a party of armed men, so that, by the time they were in hailing
+distance, the walls of the great structure were crowded with fighting men.
+
+Shandy rode ahead with a flag of truce, and when he was beneath the castle
+walls Simon de Montfort called forth:
+
+"Who be ye and what your mission ?  Peace or war ?"
+
+"It is Norman of Torn, come in peace, and in the service of a De Montfort,"
+replied Shandy.  "He would enter with one companion, my Lord Earl."
+
+"Dares Norman of Torn enter the castle of Simon de Montfort -- thinks he
+that I keep a robbers' roost !" cried the fierce old warrior.
+
+"Norman of Torn dares ride where he will in all England," boasted the red
+giant.  "Will you see him in peace, My Lord ?"
+
+"Let him enter," said De Montfort, "but no knavery, now, we are a thousand
+men here, well armed and ready fighters."
+
+Shandy returned to his master with the reply, and together, Norman of Torn
+and Bertrade de Montfort clattered across the drawbridge beneath the
+portcullis of the castle of the Earl of Leicester, brother-in-law of Henry
+III of England.
+
+The girl was still wrapped in the great cloak of her protector, for it had
+been raining, so that she rode beneath the eyes of her father's men without
+being recognized.  In the courtyard, they were met by Simon de Montfort,
+and his sons Henry and Simon.
+
+The girl threw herself impetuously from her mount, and, flinging aside the
+outlaw's cloak, rushed toward her astounded parent.
+
+"What means this," cried De Montfort, "has the rascal offered you harm or
+indignity ?"
+
+"You craven liar," cried Henry de Montfort, "but yesterday you swore upon
+your honor that you did not hold my sister, and I, like a fool, believed."
+And with his words, the young man flung himself upon Norman of Torn with
+drawn sword.
+
+Quicker than the eye could see, the sword of the visored knight flew from
+its scabbard, and, with a single lightning-like move, sent the blade of
+young De Montfort hurtling cross the courtyard; and then, before either
+could take another step, Bertrade de Montfort had sprung between them and
+placing a hand upon the breastplate of the outlaw, stretched forth the
+other with palm out-turned toward her kinsmen as though to protect Norman
+of Torn from further assault.
+
+"Be he outlaw or devil," she cried, "he is a brave and courteous knight,
+and he deserves from the hands of the De Montforts the best hospitality
+they can give, and not cold steel and insults." Then she explained briefly
+to her astonished father and brothers what had befallen during the past few
+days.
+
+Henry de Montfort, with the fine chivalry that marked him, was the first to
+step forward with outstretched hand to thank Norman of Torn, and to ask his
+pardon for his rude words and hostile act.
+
+The outlaw but held up his open palm, as he said,
+
+"Let the De Montforts think well ere they take the hand of Norman of Torn.
+I give not my hand except in friendship, and not for a passing moment; but
+for life.  I appreciate your present feelings of gratitude, but let them
+not blind you to the fact that I am still Norman the Devil, and that you
+have seen my mark upon the brows of your dead.  I would gladly have your
+friendship, but I wish it for the man, Norman of Torn, with all his faults,
+as well as what virtues you may think him to possess."
+
+"You are right, sir," said the Earl, "you have our gratitude and our thanks
+for the service you have rendered the house of Montfort, and ever during
+our lives you may command our favors.  I admire your bravery and your
+candor, but while you continue the Outlaw of Torn, you may not break bread
+at the table of De Montfort as a friend would have the right to do."
+
+"Your speech is that of a wise and careful man," said Norman of Torn
+quietly.  "I go, but remember that from this day, I have no quarrel with
+the House of Simon de Montfort, and that should you need my arms, they are
+at your service, a thousand strong.  Goodbye." But as he turned to go,
+Bertrade de Montfort confronted him with outstretched hand.
+
+"You must take my hand in friendship," she said, "for, to my dying day, I
+must ever bless the name of Norman of Torn because of the horror from which
+he has rescued me."
+
+He took the little fingers in his mailed hand, and bending upon one knee
+raised them to his lips.
+
+"To no other -- woman, man, king, God, or devil -- has Norman of Torn bent
+the knee.  If ever you need him, My Lady Bertrade, remember that his
+services are yours for the asking."
+
+And turning, he mounted and rode in silence from the courtyard of the
+castle of Leicester.  Without a backward glance, and with his five hundred
+men at his back, Norman of Torn disappeared beyond a turning in the
+roadway.
+
+"A strange man," said Simon de Montfort, "both good and bad, but from
+today, I shall ever believe more good than bad.  Would that he were other
+than he be, for his arm would wield a heavy sword against the enemies of
+England, an he could be persuaded to our cause."
+
+"Who knows," said Henry de Montfort, "but that an offer of friendship might
+have won him to a better life.  It seemed that in his speech was a note of
+wistfulness.  I wish, father, that we had taken his hand."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+Several days after Norman of Torn's visit to the castle of Leicester, a
+young knight appeared before the Earl's gates demanding admittance to have
+speech with Simon de Montfort.  The Earl received him, and as the young man
+entered his presence, Simon de Montfort, sprang to his feet in
+astonishment.
+
+"My Lord Prince," he cried.  "What do ye here, and alone ?"
+
+The young man smiled.
+
+"I be no prince, My Lord," he said, "though some have said that I favor the
+King's son.  I be Roger de Conde, whom it may have pleased your gracious
+daughter to mention.  I have come to pay homage to Bertrade de Montfort."
+
+"Ah," said De Montfort, rising to greet the young knight cordially, "an you
+be that Roger de Conde who rescued my daughter from the fellows of Peter of
+Colfax, the arms of the De Montforts are open to you.
+
+"Bertrade has had your name upon her tongue many times since her return.
+She will be glad indeed to receive you, as is her father.  She has told us
+of your valiant espousal of her cause, and the thanks of her brothers and
+mother await you, Roger de Conde.
+
+"She also told us of your strange likeness to Prince Edward, but until I
+saw you, I could not believe two men could be born of different mothers and
+yet be so identical.  Come, we will seek out my daughter and her mother."
+
+De Montfort led the young man to a small chamber where they were greeted by
+Princess Eleanor, his wife, and by Bertrade de Montfort.  The girl was
+frankly glad to see him once more and laughingly chide him because he had
+allowed another to usurp his prerogative and rescue her from Peter of
+Colfax.
+
+"And to think," she cried, "that it should have been Norman of Torn who
+fulfilled your duties for you.  But he did not capture Sir Peter's head, my
+friend; that is still at large to be brought to me upon a golden dish."
+
+"I have not forgotten, Lady Bertrade," said Roger de Conde.  "Peter of
+Colfax will return."
+
+The girl glanced at him quickly.
+
+"The very words of the Outlaw of Torn," she said.  "How many men be ye,
+Roger de Conde ?  With raised visor, you could pass in the King's court for
+the King's son; and in manner, and form, and swordsmanship, and your visor
+lowered, you might easily be hanged for Norman of Torn."
+
+"And which would it please ye most that I be ?" he laughed.
+
+"Neither," she answered, "I be satisfied with my friend, Roger de Conde."
+
+"So ye like not the Devil of Torn ?" he asked.
+
+"He has done me a great service, and I be under monstrous obligations to
+him, but he be, nathless, the Outlaw of Torn and I the daughter of an earl
+and a king's sister."
+
+"A most unbridgeable gulf indeed," commented Roger de Conde, drily.  "Not
+even gratitude could lead a king's niece to receive Norman of Torn on a
+footing of equality."
+
+"He has my friendship, always," said the girl, "but I doubt me if Norman of
+Torn be the man to impose upon it."
+
+"One can never tell," said Roger de Conde, "what manner of fool a man may
+be.  When a man's head be filled with a pretty face, what room be there for
+reason ?"
+
+"Soon thou wilt be a courtier, if thou keep long at this turning of pretty
+compliments," said the girl coldly; "and I like not courtiers, nor their
+empty, hypocritical chatter."
+
+The man laughed.
+
+"If I turned a compliment, I did not know it," he said.  "What I think, I
+say.  It may not be a courtly speech or it may.  I know nothing of courts
+and care less, but be it man or maid to whom I speak, I say what is in my
+mind or I say nothing.  I did not, in so many words, say that you are
+beautiful, but I think it nevertheless, and ye cannot be angry with my poor
+eyes if they deceive me into believing that no fairer woman breathes the
+air of England.  Nor can you chide my sinful brain that it gladly believes
+what mine eyes tell it.  No, you may not be angry so long as I do not tell
+you all this."
+
+Bertrade de Montfort did not know how to answer so ridiculous a sophistry;
+and, truth to tell, she was more than pleased to hear from the lips of
+Roger de Conde what bored her on the tongues of other men.
+
+De Conde was the guest of the Earl of Leicester for several days, and
+before his visit was terminated, the young man had so won his way into the
+good graces of the family that they were loath to see him leave.
+
+Although denied the society of such as these throughout his entire life,
+yet it seemed that he fell as naturally into the ways of their kind as
+though he had always been among them.  His starved soul, groping through
+the darkness of the empty past, yearned toward the feasting and the light
+of friendship, and urged him to turn his back upon the old life, and remain
+ever with these people, for Simon de Montfort had offered the young man a
+position of trust and honor in his retinue.
+
+"Why refused you the offer of my father ?" said Bertrade to him as he was
+come to bid her farewell.  "Simon de Montfort is as great a man in England
+as the King himself, and your future were assured did you attach your self
+to his person.  But what am I saying !  Did Roger de Conde not wish to be
+elsewhere, he had accepted and, as he did not accept, it is proof positive
+that he does not wish to bide among the De Montforts."
+
+"I would give my soul to the devil," said Norman of Torn, "would it buy me
+the right to remain ever at the feet of Bertrade Montfort."
+
+He raised her hand to his lips in farewell as he started to speak, but
+something -- was it an almost imperceptible pressure of her little fingers,
+a quickening of her breath or a swaying of her body toward him ?  -- caused
+him to pause and raise his eyes to hers.
+
+For an instant they stood thus, the eyes of the man sinking deep into the
+eyes of the maid, and then hers closed and with a little sigh that was half
+gasp, she swayed toward him, and the Devil of Torn folded the King's niece
+in his mighty arms and his lips placed the seal of a great love upon those
+that were upturned to him.
+
+The touch of those pure lips brought the man to himself.
+
+"Ah, Bertrade, my Bertrade," he cried, "what is this thing that I have
+done !  Forgive me, and let the greatness and the purity of my love for you
+plead in extenuation of my act."
+
+She looked up into his face in surprise, and then placing her strong white
+hands upon his shoulders, she whispered:
+
+"See, Roger, I am not angry.  It is not wrong that we love; tell me it is
+not, Roger."
+
+"You must not say that you love me, Bertrade.  I am a coward, a craven
+poltroon; but, God, how I love you."
+
+"But," said the girl, "I do love -- "
+
+"Stop," he cried, "not yet, not yet.  Do not say it till I come again.  You
+know nothing of me, you do not know even who I be; but when next I come, I
+promise that ye shall know as much of me as I myself know, and then,
+Bertrade, my Bertrade, if you can then say, 'I love you' no power on earth,
+or in heaven above, or hell below shall keep you from being mine !"
+
+"I will wait, Roger, for I believe in you and trust you.  I do not
+understand, but I know that you must have some good reason, though it all
+seems very strange to me.  If I, a De Montfort, am willing to acknowledge
+my love for any man, there can be no reason why I should not do so,
+unless," and she started at the sudden thought, wide-eyed and paling,
+"unless there be another woman, a -- a -- wife ?"
+
+"There is no other woman, Bertrade," said Norman of Torn.  "I have no wife;
+nor within the limits of my memory have my lips ever before touched the
+lips of another, for I do not remember my mother."
+
+She sighed a happy little sigh of relief, and laughing lightly, said:
+
+"It is some old woman's bugaboo that you are haling out of a dark corner of
+your imagination to frighten yourself with.  I do not fear, since I know
+that you must be all good.  There be no line of vice or deception upon your
+face and you are very brave.  So brave and noble a man, Roger, has a heart
+of pure gold."
+
+"Don't," he said, bitterly.  "I cannot endure it.  Wait until I come again
+and then, oh my flower of all England, if you have it in your heart to
+speak as you are speaking now, the sun of my happiness will be at zenith.
+Then, but not before, shall I speak to the Earl, thy father.  Farewell,
+Bertrade, in a few days I return."
+
+"If you would speak to the Earl on such a subject, you insolent young
+puppy, you may save your breath," thundered an angry voice, and Simon de
+Montfort strode, scowling, into the room.
+
+The girl paled, but not from fear of her father, for the fighting blood of
+the De Montforts was as strong in her as in her sire.  She faced him with
+as brave and resolute a face as did the young man, who turned slowly,
+fixing De Montfort with level gaze.
+
+"I heard enough of your words as I was passing through the corridor,"
+continued the latter, "to readily guess what had gone before.  So it is for
+this that you have wormed your sneaking way into my home ?  And thought you
+that Simon de Montfort would throw his daughter at the head of the first
+passing rogue ?  Who be ye, but a nameless rascal ?  For aught we know,
+some low born lackey.  Get ye hence, and be only thankful that I do not aid
+you with the toe of my boot where it would do the most good."
+
+"Stop !" cried the girl.  "Stop, father, hast forgot that but for Roger de
+Conde ye might have seen your daughter a corpse ere now, or, worse, herself
+befouled and dishonored ?"
+
+"I do not forget," replied the Earl, "and.  it is because I remember that
+my sword remains in its scabbard.  The fellow has been amply repaid by the
+friendship of De Montfort, but now this act of perfidy has wiped clean the
+score.  An' you would go in peace, sirrah, go quickly, ere I lose my
+temper."
+
+"There has been some misunderstanding on your part, My Lord," spoke Norman
+of Torn, quietly and without apparent anger or excitement.  "Your daughter
+has not told me that she loves me, nor did I contemplate asking you for her
+hand.  When next I come, first shall I see her and if she will have me, My
+Lord, I shall come to you to tell you that I shall wed her.  Norm -- Roger
+de Conde asks permission of no man to do what he would do."
+
+Simon de Montfort was fairly bursting with rage but he managed to control
+himself to say,
+
+"My daughter weds whom I select, and even now I have practically closed
+negotiations for her betrothal to Prince Philip, nephew of King Louis of
+France.  And as for you, sir, I would as lief see her the wife of the
+Outlaw of Torn.  He, at least, has wealth and power, and a name that be
+known outside his own armor.  But enough of this; get you gone, nor let me
+see your face again within the walls of Leicester's castle."
+
+"You are right, My Lord, it were foolish and idle for us to be quarreling
+with words," said the outlaw.  "Farewell, My Lady.  I shall return as I
+promised, and your word shall be law." And with a profound bow to De
+Montfort, Norman of Torn left the apartment, and in a few minutes was
+riding through the courtyard of the castle toward the main portals.
+
+As he passed beneath a window in the castle wall, a voice called to him
+from above, and drawing in his horse, he looked up into the eyes of
+Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+"Take this, Roger de Conde," she whispered, dropping a tiny parcel to him,
+"and wear it ever, for my sake.  We may never meet again, for the Earl my
+father, is a mighty man, not easily turned from his decisions; therefore I
+shall say to you, Roger de Conde, what you forbid my saying.  I love you,
+and be ye prince or scullion, you may have me, if you can find the means to
+take me."
+
+"Wait, my lady, until I return, then shall you decide, and if ye be of the
+same mind as today, never fear but that I shall take ye.  Again, farewell."
+And with a brave smile that hid a sad heart, Norman of Torn passed out of
+the castle yard.
+
+When he undid the parcel which Bertrade had tossed to him, he found that it
+contained a beautifully wrought ring set with a single opal.
+
+The Outlaw of Torn raised the little circlet to his lips, and then slipped
+it upon the third finger of his left hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+Norman of Torn did not return to the castle of Leicester "in a few days,"
+nor for many months.  For news came to him that Bertrade de Montfort had
+been posted off to France in charge of her mother.
+
+From now on, the forces of Torn were employed in repeated attacks on
+royalist barons, encroaching ever and ever southward until even Berkshire
+and Surrey and Sussex felt the weight of the iron hand of the outlaw.
+
+Nearly a year had elapsed since that day when he had held the fair form of
+Bertrade de Montfort in his arms, and in all that time he had heard no word
+from her.
+
+He would have followed her to France but for the fact that, after he had
+parted from her and the intoxication of her immediate presence had left his
+brain clear to think rationally, he had realized the futility of his hopes,
+and he had seen that the pressing of his suit could mean only suffering and
+mortification for the woman he loved.
+
+His better judgment told him that she, on her part, when freed from the
+subtle spell woven by the nearness and the newness of a first love, would
+doubtless be glad to forget the words she had spoken in the heat of a
+divine passion.  He would wait, then, until fate threw them together, and
+should that ever chance, while she was still free, he would let her know
+that Roger de Conde and the Outlaw of Torn were one and the same.
+
+If she wants me then, he thought, but she will not.  No it is impossible.
+It is better that she marry her French prince than to live, dishonored, the
+wife of a common highwayman; for though she might love me at first, the
+bitterness and loneliness of her life would turn her love to hate.
+
+As the outlaw was sitting one day in the little cottage of Father Claude,
+the priest reverted to the subject of many past conversations; the
+unsettled state of civil conditions in the realm, and the stand which
+Norman of Torn would take when open hostilities between King and baron were
+declared.
+
+"It would seem that Henry," said the priest, "by his continued breaches of
+both the spirit and letter of the Oxford Statutes, is but urging the barons
+to resort to arms; and the fact that he virtually forced Prince Edward to
+take up arms against Humphrey de Bohun last fall, and to carry the ravages
+of war throughout the Welsh border provinces, convinces me that he be, by
+this time, well equipped to resist De Montfort and his associates."
+
+"If that be the case," said Norman of Torn, "we shall have war and fighting
+in real earnest ere many months."
+
+"And under which standard does My Lord Norman expect to fight ?" asked
+Father Claude.
+
+"Under the black falcon's wing," laughed he of Torn.
+
+"Thou be indeed a close-mouthed man, my son," said the priest, smiling.
+"Such an attribute helpeth make a great statesman.  With thy soldierly
+qualities in addition, my dear boy, there be a great future for thee in the
+paths of honest men.  Dost remember our past talk ?"
+
+"Yes, father, well; and often have I thought on't.  I have one more duty to
+perform here in England and then, it may be, that I shall act on thy
+suggestion, but only on one condition."
+
+"What be that, my son ?"
+
+"That wheresoere I go, thou must go also.  Thou be my best friend; in
+truth, my father; none other have I ever known, for the little old man of
+Torn, even though I be the product of his loins, which I much mistrust, be
+no father to me."
+
+The priest sat looking intently at the young man for many minutes before he
+spoke.
+
+Without the cottage, a swarthy figure skulked beneath one of the windows,
+listening to such fragments of the conversation within as came to his
+attentive ears.  It was Spizo, the Spaniard.  He crouched entirely
+concealed by a great lilac bush, which many times before had hid his
+traitorous form.
+
+At length the priest spoke.
+
+"Norman of Torn," he said, "so long as thou remain in England, pitting thy
+great host against the Plantagenet King and the nobles and barons of his
+realm, thou be but serving as the cats-paw of another.  Thyself hast said
+an hundred times that thou knowst not the reason for thy hatred against
+them.  Thou be too strong a man to so throw thy life uselessly away to
+satisfy the choler of another.
+
+"There be that of which I dare not speak to thee yet and only may I guess
+and dream of what I think, nor do I know whether I must hope that it be
+false or true, but now, if ever, the time hath come for the question to be
+settled.  Thou hast not told me in so many words, but I be an old man and
+versed in reading true between the lines, and so I know that thou lovest
+Bertrade de Montfort.  Nay, do not deny it.  And now, what I would say be
+this.  In all England there lives no more honorable man than Simon de
+Montfort, nor none who could more truly decide upon thy future and thy
+past.  Thou may not understand of what I hint, but thou know that thou may
+trust me, Norman of Torn."
+
+"Yea, even with my life and honor, my father," replied the outlaw.
+
+"Then promise me, that with the old man of Torn alone, thou wilt come
+hither when I bidst thee and meet Simon de Montfort, and abide by his
+decision should my surmises concerning thee be correct.  He will be the
+best judge of any in England, save two who must now remain nameless."
+
+"I will come, Father, but it must be soon for on the fourth day we ride
+south."
+
+"It shall be by the third day, or not at all," replied Father Claude, and
+Norman of Torn, rising to leave, wondered at the moving leaves of the lilac
+bush without the window, for there was no breeze.
+
+Spizo, the Spaniard, reached Torn several minutes before the outlaw chief
+and had already poured his tale into the ears of the little, grim, gray,
+old man.
+
+As the priest's words were detailed to him the old man of Torn paled in
+anger.
+
+"The fool priest will upset the whole work to which I have devoted near
+twenty years," he muttered, "if I find not the means to quiet his half-wit
+tongue.  Between priest and petticoat, it be all but ruined now.  Well
+then, so much the sooner must I act, and I know not but that now be as good
+a time as any.  If we come near enough to the King's men on this trip
+south, the gibbet shall have its own, and a Plantagenet dog shall taste the
+fruits of his own tyranny," then glancing up and realizing that Spizo, the
+Spaniard, had been a listener, the old man, scowling, cried:
+
+"What said I, sirrah ?  What didst hear ?"
+
+"Naught, My Lord; thou didst but mutter incoherently", replied the
+Spaniard.
+
+The old man eyed him closely.
+
+"An did I more, Spizo, thou heardst naught but muttering, remember."
+
+"Yes, My Lord."
+
+An hour later, the old man of Torn dismounted before the cottage of Father
+Claude and entered.
+
+"I am honored," said the priest, rising.
+
+"Priest," cried the old man, coming immediately to the point, "Norman of
+Torn tells me that thou wish him and me and Leicester to meet here.  I know
+not what thy purpose may be, but for the boy's sake, carry not out thy
+design as yet.  I may not tell thee my reasons, but it be best that this
+meeting take place after we return from the south."
+
+The old man had never spoken so fairly to Father Claude before, and so the
+latter was quite deceived and promised to let the matter rest until later.
+
+A few days after, in the summer of 1263, Norman of Torn rode at the head of
+his army of outlaws through the county of Essex, down toward London town.
+One thousand fighting men there were, with squires and other servants, and
+five hundred sumpter beasts to transport their tents and other impedimenta,
+and bring back the loot.
+
+But a small force of ailing men-at-arms, and servants had been left to
+guard the castle of Torn under the able direction of Peter the Hermit.
+
+At the column's head rode Norman of Torn and the little grim, gray, old
+man; and behind them, nine companies of knights, followed by the catapult
+detachment; then came the sumpter beasts.  Horsan the Dane, with his
+company, formed the rear guard.  Three hundred yards in advance of the
+column rode ten men to guard against surprise and ambuscades.
+
+The pennons, and the banners and the bugles; and the loud rattling of
+sword, and lance and armor and iron-shod hoof carried to the eye and ear
+ample assurance that this great cavalcade of iron men was bent upon no
+peaceful mission.
+
+All his captains rode today with Norman of Torn.  Beside those whom we have
+met, there was Don Piedro Castro y Pensilo of Spain; Baron of Cobarth of
+Germany, and Sir John Mandecote of England.  Like their leader, each of
+these fierce warriors carried a great price upon his head, and the story of
+the life of any one would fill a large volume with romance, war, intrigue,
+treachery, bravery and death.
+
+Toward noon one day, in the midst of a beautiful valley of Essex, they came
+upon a party of ten knights escorting two young women.  The meeting was at
+a turn in the road, so that the two parties were upon each other before the
+ten knights had an opportunity to escape with their fair wards.
+
+"What the devil be this," cried one of the knights, as the main body of the
+outlaw horde came into view, "the King's army or one of his foreign
+legions ?"
+
+"It be Norman of Torn and his fighting men," replied the outlaw.
+
+The faces of the knights blanched, for they were ten against a thousand,
+and there were two women with them.
+
+"Who be ye ?" said the outlaw.
+
+"I am Richard de Tany of Essex," said the oldest knight, he who had first
+spoken, "and these be my daughter and her friend, Mary de Stutevill.  We
+are upon our way from London to my castle.  What would you of us ?  Name
+your price, if it can be paid with honor, it shall be paid; only let us go
+our way in peace.  We cannot hope to resist the Devil of Torn, for we be
+but ten lances.  If ye must have blood, at least let the women go
+unharmed."
+
+"My Lady Mary is an old friend," said the outlaw.  "I called at her
+father's home but little more than a year since.  We are neighbors, and the
+lady can tell you that women are safer at the hands of Norman of Torn than
+they might be in the King's palace."
+
+"Right he is," spoke up Lady Mary, "Norman of Torn accorded my mother, my
+sister, and myself the utmost respect; though I cannot say as much for his
+treatment of my father," she added, half smiling.
+
+"I have no quarrel with you, Richard de Tany," said Norman of Torn.  "Ride
+on."
+
+The next day, a young man hailed the watch upon the walls of the castle of
+Richard de Tany, telling him to bear word to Joan de Tany that Roger de
+Conde, a friend of her guest Lady Mary de Stutevill, was without.
+
+In a few moments, the great drawbridge sank slowly into place and Norman of
+Torn trotted into the courtyard.
+
+He was escorted to an apartment where Mary de Stutevill and Joan de Tany
+were waiting to receive him.  Mary de Stutevill greeted him as an old
+friend, and the daughter of de Tany was no less cordial in welcoming her
+friend's friend to the hospitality of her father's castle.
+
+"Are all your old friends and neighbors come after you to Essex," cried
+Joan de Tany, laughingly, addressing Mary.  "Today it is Roger de Conde,
+yesterday it was the Outlaw of Torn.  Methinks Derby will soon be
+depopulated unless you return quickly to your home."
+
+"I rather think it be for news of another that we owe this visit from Roger
+de Conde," said Mary, smiling.  "For I have heard tales, and I see a great
+ring upon the gentleman's hand -- a ring which I have seen before."
+
+Norman of Torn made no attempt to deny the reason for his visit, but asked
+bluntly if she heard aught of Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+"Thrice within the year have I received missives from her," replied Mary.
+"In the first two she spoke only of Roger de Conde, wondering why he did
+not come to France after her; but in the last she mentions not his name,
+but speaks of her approaching marriage with Prince Philip."
+
+Both girls were watching the countenance of Roger de Conde narrowly, but no
+sign of the sorrow which filled his heart showed itself upon his face.
+
+"I guess it be better so," he said quietly.  "The daughter of a De Montfort
+could scarcely be happy with a nameless adventurer," he added, a little
+bitterly.
+
+"You wrong her, my friend," said Mary de Stutevill.  "She loved you and,
+unless I know not the friend of my childhood as well as I know myself, she
+loves you yet; but Bertrade de Montfort is a proud woman and what can you
+expect when she hears no word from you for a year ?  Thought you that she
+would seek you out and implore you to rescue her from the alliance her
+father has made for her ?"
+
+"You do not understand," he answered, "and I may not tell you; but I ask
+that you believe me when I say that it was for her own peace of mind, for
+her own happiness, that I did not follow her to France.  But, let us talk
+of other things.  The sorrow is mine and I would not force it upon others.
+I cared only to know that she is well, and, I hope, happy.  It will never
+be given to me to make her or any other woman so.  I would that I had never
+come into her life, but I did not know what I was doing; and the spell of
+her beauty and goodness was strong upon me, so that I was weak and could
+not resist what I had never known before in all my life - love."
+
+"You could not well be blamed," said Joan de Tany, generously.  "Bertrade
+de Montfort is all and even more than you have said; it be a benediction
+simply to have known her."
+
+As she spoke, Norman of Torn looked upon her critically for the first time,
+and he saw that Joan de Tany was beautiful, and that when she spoke, her
+face lighted with a hundred little changing expressions of intelligence and
+character that cast a spell of fascination about her.  Yes, Joan de Tany
+was good to look upon, and Norman of Torn carried a wounded heart in his
+breast that longed for surcease from its sufferings -- for a healing balm
+upon its hurts and bruises.
+
+And so it came to pass that, for many days, the Outlaw of Torn was a daily
+visitor at the castle of Richard de Tany, and the acquaintance between the
+man and the two girls ripened into a deep friendship, and with one of them,
+it threatened even more.
+
+Norman of Torn, in his ignorance of the ways of women, saw only friendship
+in the little acts of Joan de Tany.  His life had been a hard and lonely
+one.  The only ray of brilliant and warming sunshine that had entered it
+had been his love for Bertrade de Montfort and hers for him.
+
+His every thought was loyal to the woman whom he knew was not for him, but
+he longed for the companionship of his own kind and so welcomed the
+friendship of such as Joan de Tany and her fair guest.  He did not dream
+that either looked upon him with any warmer sentiment than the sweet
+friendliness which was as new to him as love -- how could he mark the line
+between or foresee the terrible price of his ignorance !
+
+Mary de Stutevill saw and she thought the man but fickle and shallow in
+matters of the heart -- many there were, she knew, who were thus.  She
+might have warned him had she known the truth, but instead, she let things
+drift except for a single word of warning to Joan de Tany.
+
+"Be careful of thy heart, Joan," she said, "lest it be getting away from
+thee into the keeping of one who seems to love no less quickly than he
+forgets."
+
+The daughter of De Tany flushed.
+
+"I am quite capable of safeguarding my own heart, Mary de Stutevill," she
+replied warmly.  "If thou covet this man thyself, why, but say so.  Do not
+think though that, because thy heart glows in his presence, mine is equally
+susceptible."
+
+It was Mary's turn now to show offense, and a sharp retort was on her
+tongue when suddenly she realized the folly of such a useless quarrel.
+Instead she put her arms about Joan and kissed her.
+
+"I do not love him," she said, "and I be glad that you do not, for I know
+that Bertrade does, and that but a short year since, he swore undying love
+for her.  Let us forget that we have spoken on the subject."
+
+It was at this time that the King's soldiers were harassing the lands of
+the rebel barons, and taking a heavy toll in revenge for their stinging
+defeat at Rochester earlier in the year, so that it was scarcely safe for
+small parties to venture upon the roadways lest they fall into the hands of
+the mercenaries of Henry III.
+
+Not even were the wives and daughters of the barons exempt from the attacks
+of the royalists; and it was no uncommon occurrence to find them suffering
+imprisonment, and something worse, at the hands of the King's supporters.
+
+And in the midst of these alarms, it entered the willful head of Joan de
+Tany that she wished to ride to London town and visit the shops of the
+merchants.
+
+While London itself was solidly for the barons and against the King's
+party, the road between the castle of Richard de Tany and the city of
+London was beset with many dangers.
+
+"Why," cried the girl's mother in exasperation, "between robbers and
+royalists and the Outlaw of Torn, you would not be safe if you had an army
+to escort you."
+
+"But then, as I have no army," retorted the laughing girl, "if you reason
+by your own logic, I shall be indeed quite safe."
+
+And when Roger de Conde attempted to dissuade her, she taunted him with
+being afraid of meeting with the Devil of Torn, and told him that he might
+remain at home and lock himself safely in her mother's pantry.
+
+And so, as Joan de Tany was a spoiled child, they set out upon the road to
+London; the two girls with a dozen servants and knights; and Roger de Conde
+was of the party.
+
+At the same time a grim, gray, old man dispatched a messenger from the
+outlaw's camp; a swarthy fellow, disguised as a priest, whose orders were
+to proceed to London, and when he saw the party of Joan de Tany, with Roger
+de Conde, enter the city, he was to deliver the letter he bore to the
+captain of the gate.
+
+The letter contained this brief message:
+
+"The tall knight in gray with closed helm is Norman of Torn," and was
+unsigned.
+
+All went well and Joan was laughing merrily at the fears of those who had
+attempted to dissuade her when, at a cross road, they discovered two
+parties of armed men approaching from opposite directions.  The leader of
+the nearer party spurred forward to intercept the little band, and, reining
+in before them, cried brusquely,
+
+"Who be ye ?"
+
+"A party on a peaceful mission to the shops of London," replied Norman of
+Torn.
+
+"I asked not your mission," cried the fellow.  "I asked, who be ye ?
+Answer, and be quick about it."
+
+"I be Roger de Conde, gentleman of France, and these be my sisters and
+servants," lied the outlaw, "and were it not that the ladies be with me,
+your answer would be couched in steel, as you deserve for your boorish
+insolence."
+
+"There be plenty of room and time for that even now, you dog of a French
+coward," cried the officer, couching his lance as he spoke.
+
+Joan de Tany was sitting her horse where she could see the face of Roger de
+Conde, and it filled her heart with pride and courage as she saw and
+understood the little smile of satisfaction that touched his lips as he
+heard the man's challenge and lowered the point of his own spear.
+
+Wheeling their horses toward one another, the two combatants, who were some
+ninety feet apart, charged at full tilt.  As they came together the impact
+was so great that both horses were nearly overturned and the two powerful
+war lances were splintered into a hundred fragments as each struck the
+exact center of his opponent's shield.  Then, wheeling their horses and
+throwing away the butts of their now useless lances, De Conde and the
+officer advanced with drawn swords.
+
+The fellow made a most vicious return assault upon De Conde, attempting to
+ride him down in one mad rush, but his thrust passed harmlessly from the
+tip of the outlaw's sword, and as the officer wheeled back to renew the
+battle, they settled down to fierce combat, their horses wheeling and
+turning shoulder to shoulder.
+
+The two girls sat rigid in their saddles watching the encounter, the eyes
+of Joan de Tany alight with the fire of battle as she followed every move
+of the wondrous swordplay of Roger de Conde.
+
+He had not even taken the precaution to lower his visor, and the grim and
+haughty smile that played upon his lips spoke louder than many words the
+utter contempt in which he held the sword of his adversary.  And as Joan de
+Tany watched, she saw the smile suddenly freeze to a cold, hard line, and
+the eyes of the man narrow to mere slits, and her woman's intuition read
+the death warrant of the King's officer ere the sword of the outlaw buried
+itself in his heart.
+
+The other members of the two bodies of royalist soldiers had sat spellbound
+as they watched the battle, but now, as their leader's corpse rolled from
+the saddle, they spurred furiously in upon De Conde and his little party.
+
+The Baron's men put up a noble fight, but the odds were heavy and even with
+the mighty arm of Norman of Torn upon their side the outcome was apparent
+from the first.
+
+Five swords were flashing about the outlaw, but his blade was equal to the
+thrust and one after another of his assailants crumpled up in their saddles
+as his leaping point found their vitals.
+
+Nearly all of the Baron's men were down, when one, an old servitor, spurred
+to the side of Joan de Tany and Mary de Stutevill.
+
+"Come, my ladies," he cried, "quick and you may escape.  They be so busy
+with the battle that they will never notice."
+
+"Take the Lady Mary, John," cried Joan, "I brought Roger de Conde to this
+pass against the advice of all and I remain with him to the end."
+
+"But, My Lady -- " cried John.
+
+"But nothing, sirrah !" she interrupted sharply.  "Do as you are bid.
+Follow my Lady Mary, and see that she comes to my father's castle in
+safety," and raising her riding whip, she struck Mary's palfrey across the
+rump so that the animal nearly unseated his fair rider as he leaped
+frantically to one side and started madly up the road down which they had
+come.
+
+"After her, John," commanded Joan peremptorily, and see that you turn not
+back until she be safe within the castle walls; then you may bring aid."
+
+The old fellow had been wont to obey the imperious little Lady Joan from
+her earliest childhood, and the habit was so strong upon him that he
+wheeled his horse and galloped after the flying palfrey of the Lady Mary de
+Stutevill.
+
+As Joan de Tany turned again to the encounter before her, she saw fully
+twenty men surrounding Roger de Conde, and while he was taking heavy toll
+of those before him, he could not cope with the men who attacked him from
+behind; and even as she looked, she saw a battle axe fall full upon his
+helm, and his sword drop from his nerveless fingers as his lifeless body
+rolled from the back of Sir Mortimer to the battle-tramped clay of the
+highroad.
+
+She slid quickly from her palfrey and ran fearlessly toward his prostrate
+form, reckless of the tangled mass of snorting, trampling, steel-clad
+horses, and surging fighting-men that surrounded him.  And well it was for
+Norman of Torn that this brave girl was there that day, for even as she
+reached his side, the sword point of one of the soldiers was at his throat
+for the coup de grace.
+
+With a cry, Joan de Tany threw herself across the outlaw's body, shielding
+him as best she could from the threatening sword.
+
+Cursing loudly, the soldier grasped her roughly by the arm to drag her from
+his prey, but at this juncture, a richly armored knight galloped up and
+drew rein beside the party.
+
+The newcomer was a man of about forty-five or fifty; tall, handsome,
+black-mustached and with the haughty arrogance of pride most often seen
+upon the faces of those who have been raised by unmerited favor to
+positions of power and affluence.
+
+He was John de Fulm, Earl of Buckingham, a foreigner by birth and for years
+one of the King's favorites; the bitterest enemy of De Montfort and the
+barons.
+
+"What now ?" he cried.  "What goes on here ?"
+
+The soldiers fell back, and one of them replied:
+
+"A party of the King's enemies attacked us, My Lord Earl, but we routed
+them, taking these two prisoners."
+
+"Who be ye ?" he said, turning toward Joan who was kneeling beside De
+Conde, and as she raised her head, "My God !  The daughter of De Tany !  a
+noble prize indeed my men.  And who be the knight ?"
+
+"Look for yourself, My Lord Earl," replied the girl removing the helm,
+which she had been unlacing from the fallen man.
+
+"Edward ?" he ejaculated.  "But no, it cannot be, I did but yesterday leave
+Edward in Dover."
+
+"I know not who he be," said Joan de Tany, "except that he be the most
+marvelous fighter and the bravest man it has ever been given me to see.  He
+called himself Roger de Conde, but I know nothing of him other than that he
+looks like a prince, and fights like a devil.  I think he has no quarrel
+with either side, My Lord, and so, as you certainly do not make war on
+women, you will let us go our way in peace as we were when your soldiers
+wantonly set upon us."
+
+"A De Tany, madam, were a great and valuable capture in these troublous
+times," replied the Earl, "and that alone were enough to necessitate my
+keeping you; but a beautiful De Tany is yet a different matter and so I
+will grant you at least one favor.  I will not take you to the King, but a
+prisoner you shall be in mine own castle for I am alone, and need the
+cheering company of a fair and loving lady."
+
+The girl's head went high as she looked the Earl full in the eye.
+
+"Think you, John de Fulm, Earl of Buckingham, that you be talking to some
+comely scullery maid ?  Do you forget that my house is honored in England,
+even though it does not share the King's favors with his foreign favorites,
+and you owe respect to a daughter of a De Tany ?"
+
+"All be fair in war, my beauty," replied the Earl.  "Egad," he continued,
+"methinks all would be fair in hell were they like unto you.  It has been
+some years since I have seen you and I did not know the old fox Richard de
+Tany kept such a package as this hid in his grimy old castle."
+
+"Then you refuse to release us ?" said Joan de Tany.
+
+"Let us not put it thus harshly," countered the Earl.  "Rather let us say
+that it be so late in the day, and the way so beset with dangers that the
+Earl of Buckingham could not bring himself to expose the beautiful daughter
+of his old friend to the perils of the road, and so -- "
+
+"Let us have an end to such foolishness," cried the girl.  "I might have
+expected naught better from a turncoat foreign knave such as thee, who once
+joined in the councils of De Montfort, and then betrayed his friends to
+curry favor with the King."
+
+The Earl paled with rage, and pressed forward as though to strike the girl,
+but thinking better of it, he turned to one of the soldiers, saying:
+
+"Bring the prisoner with you.  If the man lives bring him also.  I would
+learn more of this fellow who masquerades in the countenance of a crown
+prince."
+
+And turning, he spurred on towards the neighboring castle of a rebel baron
+which had been captured by the royalists, and was now used as headquarters
+by De Fulm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+When Norman of Torn regained his senses, he found himself in a small tower
+room in a strange castle.  His head ached horribly, and he felt sick and
+sore; but he managed to crawl from the cot on which he lay, and by
+steadying his swaying body with hands pressed against the wall, he was able
+to reach the door.  To his disappointment, he found this locked from
+without and, in his weakened condition, he made no attempt to force it.
+
+He was fully dressed and in armor, as he had been when struck down, but his
+helmet was gone, as were also his sword and dagger.
+
+The day was drawing to a close and, as dusk fell and the room darkened, he
+became more and more impatient.  Repeated pounding upon the door brought no
+response and finally he gave up in despair.  Going to the window, he saw
+that his room was some thirty feet above the stone-flagged courtyard, and
+also that it looked at an angle upon other windows in the old castle where
+lights were beginning to show.  He saw men-at-arms moving about, and once
+he thought he caught a glimpse of a woman's figure, but he was not sure.
+
+He wondered what had become of Joan de Tany and Mary de Stutevill.  He
+hoped that they had escaped, and yet -- no, Joan certainly had not, for now
+he distinctly remembered that his eyes had met hers for an instant just
+before the blow fell upon him, and he thought of the faith and confidence
+that he had read in that quick glance.  Such a look would nerve a jackal to
+attack a drove of lions, thought the outlaw.  What a beautiful creature she
+was; and she had stayed there with him during the fight.  He remembered
+now.  Mary de Stutevill had not been with her as he had caught that glimpse
+of her, no, she had been all alone.  Ah !  That was friendship indeed !
+
+What else was it that tried to force its way above the threshold of his
+bruised and wavering memory ?  Words ?  Words of love ?  And lips pressed
+to his ?  No, it must be but a figment of his wounded brain.
+
+What was that which clicked against his breastplate ?  He felt, and found a
+metal bauble linked to a mesh of his steel armor by a strand of silken
+hair.  He carried the little thing to the window, and in the waning light
+made it out to be a golden hair ornament set with precious stones, but he
+could not tell if the little strand of silken hair were black or brown.
+Carefully he detached the little thing, and, winding the filmy tress about
+it, placed it within the breast of his tunic.  He was vaguely troubled by
+it, yet why he could scarcely have told, himself.
+
+Again turning to the window, he watched the lighted rooms within his
+vision, and presently his view was rewarded by the sight of a knight coming
+within the scope of the narrow casement of a nearby chamber.
+
+From his apparel, he was a man of position, and he was evidently in heated
+discussion with some one whom Norman of Torn could not see.  The man, a
+great, tall black-haired and mustached nobleman, was pounding upon a table
+to emphasize his words, and presently he sprang up as though rushing toward
+the one to whom he had been speaking.  He disappeared from the watcher's
+view for a moment and then, at the far side of the apartment, Norman of
+Torn saw him again just as he roughly grasped the figure of a woman who
+evidently was attempting to escape him.  As she turned to face her
+tormentor, all the devil in the Devil of Torn surged in his aching head,
+for the face he saw was that of Joan de Tany.
+
+With a muttered oath, the imprisoned man turned to hurl himself against the
+bolted door, but ere he had taken a single step, the sound of heavy feet
+without brought him to a stop, and the jingle of keys as one was fitted to
+the lock of the door sent him gliding stealthily to the wall beside the
+doorway, where the inswinging door would conceal him.
+
+As the door was pushed back, a flickering torch lighted up, but dimly, the
+interior, so that until he had reached the center of the room, the visitor
+did not see that the cot was empty.
+
+He was a man-at-arms, and at his side hung a sword.  That was enough for
+the Devil of Torn -- it was a sword he craved most; and, ere the fellow
+could assure his slow wits that the cot was empty, steel fingers closed
+upon his throat, and he went down beneath the giant form of the outlaw.
+
+Without other sound than the scuffing of their bodies on the floor, and the
+clanking of their armor, they fought, the one to reach the dagger at his
+side, the other to close forever the windpipe of his adversary.
+
+Presently, the man-at-arms found what he sought, and, after tugging with
+ever diminishing strength, he felt the blade slip from its sheath.  Slowly
+and feebly he raised it high above the back of the man on top of him; with
+a last supreme effort he drove the point downward, but ere it reached its
+goal, there was a sharp snapping sound as of a broken bone, the dagger fell
+harmlessly from his dead hand, and his head rolled backward upon his broken
+neck.
+
+Snatching the sword from the body of his dead antagonist, Norman of Torn
+rushed from the tower room.
+
+As John de Fulm, Earl of Buckingham, laid his vandal hands upon Joan de
+Tany, she turned upon him like a tigress.  Blow after blow she rained upon
+his head and face until, in mortification and rage, he struck her full upon
+the mouth with his clenched fist; but even this did not subdue her and,
+with ever weakening strength, she continued to strike him.  And then the
+great royalist Earl, the chosen friend of the King, took the fair white
+throat between his great fingers, and the lust of blood supplanted the lust
+of love, for he would have killed her in his rage.
+
+It was upon this scene that the Outlaw of Torn burst with naked sword.
+They were at the far end of the apartment, and his cry of anger at the
+sight caused the Earl to drop his prey, and turn with drawn sword to meet
+him.
+
+There were no words, for there was no need of words here.  The two men were
+upon each other, and fighting to the death, before the girl had regained
+her feet.  It would have been short shrift for John de Fulm had not some of
+his men heard the fracas, and rushed to his aid.
+
+Four of them there were, and they tumbled pell-mell into the room, fairly
+falling upon Norman of Torn in their anxiety to get their swords into him;
+but once they met that master hand, they went more slowly, and in a moment,
+two of them went no more at all, and the others, with the Earl, were but
+circling warily in search of a chance opening -- an opening which never
+came.
+
+Norman of Torn stood with his back against a table in an angle of the room,
+and behind him stood Joan de Tany.
+
+"Move toward the left," she whispered.  "I know this old pile.  When you
+reach the table that bears the lamp, there will be a small doorway directly
+behind you.  Strike the lamp out with your sword, as you feel my hand in
+your left, and then I will lead you through that doorway, which you must
+turn and quickly bolt after us.  Do you understand ?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+Slowly he worked his way toward the table, the men-at-arms in the meantime
+keeping up an infernal howling for help.  The Earl was careful to keep out
+of reach of the point of De Conde's sword, and the men-at-arms were nothing
+loath to emulate their master's example.
+
+Just as he reached his goal, a dozen more men burst into the room, and
+emboldened by this reinforcement, one of the men engaging De Conde came too
+close.  As he jerked his blade from the fellow's throat, Norman of Torn
+felt a firm, warm hand slipped into his from behind, and his sword swung
+with a resounding blow against the lamp.
+
+As darkness enveloped the chamber, Joan de Tany led him through the little
+door, which he immediately closed and bolted as she had instructed.
+
+"This way," she whispered, again slipping her hand into his and, in
+silence, she led him through several dim chambers, and finally stopped
+before a blank wall in a great oak-panelled room.
+
+Here the girl felt with swift fingers the edge of the molding.  More and
+more rapidly she moved as the sound of hurrying footsteps resounded through
+the castle.
+
+"What is wrong ?" asked Norman of Torn, noticing her increasing
+perturbation.
+
+"Mon Dieu !" she cried.  "Can I be wrong !  Surely this is the room.  Oh,
+my friend, that I should have brought you to all this by my willfulness and
+vanity; and now when I might save you, my wits leave me and I forget the
+way."
+
+"Do not worry about me," laughed the Devil of Torn.  "Methought that it was
+I who was trying to save you, and may heaven forgive me else, for surely,
+that be my only excuse for running away from a handful of swords.  I could
+not take chances when thou wert at stake, Joan," he added more gravely.
+
+ The sound of pursuit was now quite close, in fact the reflection from
+flickering torches could be seen in nearby chambers.
+
+At last the girl, with a little cry of "stupid," seized De Conde and rushed
+him to the far side of the room.
+
+"Here it is," she whispered joyously, "here it has been all the time."
+Running her fingers along the molding until she found a little hidden
+spring, she pushed it, and one of the great panels swung slowly in,
+revealing the yawning mouth of a black opening behind.
+
+Quickly the girl entered, pulling De Conde after her, and as the panel
+swung quietly into place, the Earl of Buckingham with a dozen men entered
+the apartment.
+
+"The devil take them," cried De Fulm.  "Where can they have gone ?  Surely
+we were right behind them."
+
+"It is passing strange, My Lord," replied one of the men.  "Let us try the
+floor above, and the towers; for of a surety they have not come this way."
+And the party retraced its steps, leaving the apartment empty.
+
+Behind the panel, the girl stood shrinking close to De Conde, her hand
+still in his.
+
+"Where now ?" he asked.  "Or do we stay hidden here like frightened chicks
+until the war is over and the Baron returns to let us out of this musty
+hole ?"
+
+"Wait," she answered, "until I quiet my nerves a little.  I am all
+unstrung." He felt her body tremble as it pressed against his.
+
+With the spirit of protection strong within him, what wonder that his arm
+fell about her shoulder as though to say, fear not, for I be brave and
+powerful; naught can harm you while I am here.
+
+Presently she reached her hands up to his face, made brave to do it by the
+sheltering darkness.
+
+"Roger," she whispered, her tongue halting over the familiar name.  "I
+thought that they had killed you, and all for me, for my foolish
+stubbornness.  Canst forgive me ?"
+
+"Forgive ?" he asked, smiling to himself.  "Forgive being given an
+opportunity to fight ?  There be nothing to forgive, Joan, unless it be
+that I should ask forgiveness for protecting thee so poorly."
+
+"Do not say that," she commanded.  "Never was such bravery or such
+swordsmanship in all the world before; never such a man."
+
+He did not answer.  His mind was a chaos of conflicting thoughts.  The feel
+of her hands as they had lingered momentarily, and with a vague caress upon
+his cheek, and the pressure of her body as she leaned against him sent the
+hot blood coursing through his veins.  He was puzzled, for he had not
+dreamed that friendship was so sweet.  That she did not shrink from his
+encircling arms should have told him much, but Norman of Torn was slow to
+realize that a woman might look upon him with love.  Nor had he a thought
+of any other sentiment toward her than that of friend and protector.
+
+And then there came to him as in a vision another fair and beautiful
+face -- Bertrade de Montfort's -- and Norman of Torn was still more
+puzzled; for at heart he was clean, and love of loyalty was strong within
+him.  Love of women was a new thing to him, and, robbed as he had been all
+his starved life of the affection and kindly fellowship, of either men or
+women, it is little to be wondered at that he was easily impressionable and
+responsive to the feeling his strong personality had awakened in two of
+England's fairest daughters.
+
+But with the vision of that other face, there came to him a faint
+realization that mayhap it was a stronger power than either friendship or
+fear which caused that lithe, warm body to cling so tightly to him.  That
+the responsibility for the critical stage their young acquaintance had so
+quickly reached was not his had never for a moment entered his head.  To
+him, the fault was all his; and perhaps it was this quality of chivalry
+that was the finest of the many noble characteristics of his sterling
+character.  So his next words were typical of the man; and did Joan de Tany
+love him, or did she not, she learned that night to respect and trust him
+as she respected and trusted few men of her acquaintance.
+
+"My Lady," said Norman of Torn, "we have been through much, and we are as
+little children in a dark attic, and so if I have presumed upon our
+acquaintance," and he lowered his arm from about her shoulder, "I ask you
+to forgive it for I scarce know what to do, from weakness and from the pain
+of the blow upon my head."
+
+Joan de Tany drew slowly away from him, and without reply, took his hand
+and led him forward through a dark, cold corridor.
+
+"We must go carefully now," she said at last, "for there be stairs near."
+
+He held her hand pressed very tightly in his, tighter perhaps than
+conditions required, but she let it lie there as she led him forward, very
+slowly down a flight of rough stone steps.
+
+Norman of Torn wondered if she were angry with him and then, being new at
+love, he blundered.
+
+"Joan de Tany," he said.
+
+"Yes, Roger de Conde; what would you ?"
+
+"You be silent, and I fear that you be angry with me.  Tell me that you
+forgive what I have done, an it offended you.  I have so few friends," he
+added sadly, "that I cannot afford to lose such as you."
+
+"You will never lose the friendship of Joan de Tany," she answered.  "You
+have won her respect and -- and -- " But she could not say it and so she
+trailed off lamely -- "and undying gratitude."
+
+But Norman of Torn knew the word that she would have spoken had he dared to
+let her.  He did not, for there was always the vision of Bertrade de
+Montfort before him; and now another vision arose that would effectually
+have sealed his lips had not the other -- he saw the Outlaw of Torn
+dangling by his neck from a wooden gibbet.
+
+Before, he had only feared that Joan de Tany loved him, now he knew it, and
+while he marvelled that so wondrous a creature could feel love for him,
+again he blamed himself, and felt sorrow for them both; for he did not
+return her love nor could he imagine a love strong enough to survive the
+knowledge that it was possessed by the Devil of Torn.
+
+Presently they reached the bottom of the stairway, and Joan de Tany led
+him, gropingly, across what seemed, from their echoing footsteps, a large
+chamber.  The air was chill and dank, smelling of mold, and no ray of light
+penetrated this subterranean vault, and no sound broke the stillness.
+
+"This be the castle's crypt," whispered Joan; "and they do say that strange
+happenings occur here in the still watches of the night, and that when the
+castle sleeps, the castle's dead rise from their coffins and shake their
+dry bones.
+
+"Sh !  What was that ?" as a rustling noise broke upon their ears close
+upon their right; and then there came a distinct moan, and Joan de Tany
+fled to the refuge of Norman of Torn's arms.
+
+"There is nothing to fear, Joan," reassured Norman of Torn.  "Dead men
+wield not swords, nor do they move, or moan.  The wind, I think, and rats
+are our only companions here."
+
+"I am afraid," she whispered.  "If you can make a light, I am sure you will
+find an old lamp here in the crypt, and then will it be less fearsome.  As
+a child I visited this castle often, and in search of adventure, we passed
+through these corridors an hundred times, but always by day and with
+lights."
+
+Norman of Torn did as she bid, and finding the lamp, lighted it.  The
+chamber was quite empty save for the coffins in their niches, and some
+effigies in marble set at intervals about the walls.
+
+"Not such a fearsome place after all," he said, laughing lightly.
+
+"No place would seem fearsome now," she answered simply, "were there a
+light to show me that the brave face of Roger de Conde were by my side."
+
+"Hush, child," replied the outlaw.  "You know not what you say.  When you
+know me better, you will be sorry for your words, for Roger de Conde is not
+what you think him.  So say no more of praise until we be out of this hole,
+and you safe in your father's halls."
+
+The fright of the noises in the dark chamber had but served to again bring
+the girl's face close to his so that he felt her hot, sweet breath upon his
+cheek, and thus another link was forged to bind him to her.
+
+With the aid of the lamp, they made more rapid progress, and in a few
+moments, reached a low door at the end of the arched passageway.
+
+"This is the doorway which opens upon the ravine below the castle.  We have
+passed beneath the walls and the moat.  What may we do now, Roger, without
+horses ?"
+
+"Let us get out of this place, and as far away as possible under the cover
+of darkness, and I doubt not I may find a way to bring you to your father's
+castle," replied Norman of Torn.
+
+Putting out the light, lest it should attract the notice of the watch upon
+the castle walls, Norman of Torn pushed open the little door and stepped
+forth into the fresh night air.
+
+The ravine was so overgrown with tangled vines and wildwood that, had there
+ever been a pathway, it was now completely obliterated; and it was with
+difficulty that the man forced his way through the entangling creepers and
+tendrils.  The girl stumbled after him and twice fell before they had taken
+a score of steps.
+
+"I fear I am not strong enough," she said finally.  "The way is much more
+difficult than I had thought."
+
+So Norman of Torn lifted her in his strong arms, and stumbled on through
+the darkness and the shrubbery down the center of the ravine.  It required
+the better part of an hour to traverse the little distance to the roadway;
+and all the time her head nestled upon his shoulder and her hair brushed
+his cheek.  Once when she lifted her head to speak to him, he bent toward
+her, and in the darkness, by chance, his lips brushed hers.  He felt her
+little form tremble in his arms, and a faint sigh breathed from her lips.
+
+They were upon the highroad now, but he did not put her down.  A mist was
+before his eyes, and he could have crushed her to him and smothered those
+warm lips with his own.  Slowly, his face inclined toward hers, closer and
+closer his iron muscles pressed her to him, and then, clear cut and
+distinct before his eyes, he saw the corpse of the Outlaw of Torn swinging
+by the neck from the arm of a wooden gibbet, and beside it knelt a woman
+gowned in rich cloth of gold and many jewels.  Her face was averted and her
+arms were outstretched toward the dangling form that swung and twisted from
+the grim, gaunt arm.  Her figure was racked with choking sobs of
+horror-stricken grief.  Presently she staggered to her feet and turned
+away, burying her face in her hands; but he saw her features for an instant
+then -- the woman who openly and alone mourned the dead Outlaw of Torn was
+Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+Slowly his arms relaxed, and gently and reverently he lowered Joan de Tany
+to the ground.  In that instant Norman of Torn had learned the difference
+between friendship and love, and love and passion.
+
+The moon was shining brightly upon them, and the girl turned, wide-eyed and
+wondering, toward him.  She had felt the wild call of love and she could
+not understand his seeming coldness now, for she had seen no vision beyond
+a life of happiness within those strong arms.
+
+"Joan," he said, "I would but now have wronged thee.  Forgive me.  Forget
+what has passed between us until I can come to you in my rightful colors,
+when the spell of the moonlight and adventure be no longer upon us, and
+then," -- he paused -- "and then I shall tell you who I be and you shall
+say if you still care to call me friend -- no more than that shall I ask."
+
+He had not the heart to tell her that he loved only Bertrade de Montfort,
+but it had been a thousand times better had he done so.
+
+She was about to reply when a dozen armed men sprang from the surrounding
+shadows, calling upon them to surrender.  The moonlight falling upon the
+leader revealed a great giant of a fellow with an enormous, bristling
+mustache -- it was Shandy.
+
+Norman of Torn lowered his raised sword.
+
+"It is I, Shandy," he said.  "Keep a still tongue in thy head until I speak
+with thee apart.  Wait here, My Lady Joan; these be friends."
+
+Drawing Shandy to one side, he learned that the faithful fellow had become
+alarmed at his chief's continued absence, and had set out with a small
+party to search for him.  They had come upon the riderless Sir Mortimer
+grazing by the roadside, and a short distance beyond, had discovered
+evidences of the conflict at the cross-roads.  There they had found Norman
+of Torn's helmet, confirming their worst fears.  A peasant in a nearby hut
+had told them of the encounter, and had set them upon the road taken by the
+Earl and his prisoners.
+
+"And here we be, My Lord," concluded the great fellow.
+
+"How many are you ?" asked the outlaw.
+
+"Fifty, all told, with those who lie farther back in the bushes."
+
+"Give us horses, and let two of the men ride behind us," said the chief.
+"And, Shandy, let not the lady know that she rides this night with the
+Outlaw of Torn."
+
+"Yes, My Lord."
+
+They were soon mounted, and clattering down the road, back toward the
+castle of Richard de Tany.
+
+Joan de Tany looked in silent wonder upon this grim force that sprang out
+of the shadows of the night to do the bidding of Roger de Conde, a
+gentleman of France.
+
+There was something familiar in the great bulk of Red Shandy; where had she
+seen that mighty frame before ?  And now she looked closely at the figure
+of Roger de Conde.  Yes, somewhere else had she seen these two men
+together; but where and when ?
+
+And then the strangeness of another incident came to her mind.  Roger de
+Conde spoke no English, and yet she had plainly heard English words upon
+this man's lips as he addressed the red giant.
+
+Norman of Torn had recovered his helmet from one of his men who had picked
+it up at the crossroads, and now he rode in silence with lowered visor, as
+was his custom.
+
+There was something sinister now in his appearance, and as the moonlight
+touched the hard, cruel faces of the grim and silent men who rode behind
+him, a little shudder crept over the frame of Joan de Tany.
+
+Shortly before daylight they reached the castle of Richard de Tany, and a
+great shout went up from the watch as Norman of Torn cried:
+
+"Open !  Open for My Lady Joan."
+
+Together they rode into the courtyard, where all was bustle and
+excitement.  A dozen voices asked a dozen questions only to cry out still
+others without waiting for replies.
+
+Richard de Tany with his family and Mary de Stutevill were still fully
+clothed, having not lain down during the whole night.  They fairly fell
+upon Joan and Roger de Conde in their joyous welcome and relief.
+
+"Come, come," said the Baron, "let us go within.  You must be fair famished
+for good food and drink."
+
+"I will ride, My Lord," replied Norman of Torn.  "I have a little matter of
+business with my friend, the Earl of Buckingham.  Business which I fear
+will not wait."
+
+Joan de Tany looked on in silence.  Nor did she urge him to remain, as he
+raised her hand to his lips in farewell.  So Norman of Torn rode out of the
+courtyard; and as his men fell in behind him under the first rays of the
+drawing day, the daughter of De Tany watched them through the gate, and a
+great light broke upon her, for what she saw was the same as she had seen a
+few days since when she had turned in her saddle to watch the retreating
+forms of the cut-throats of Torn as they rode on after halting her father's
+party.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+Some hours later, fifty men followed Norman of Torn on foot through the
+ravine below the castle where John de Fulm, Earl of Buckingham, had his
+headquarters; while nearly a thousand more lurked in the woods before the
+grim pile.
+
+Under cover of the tangled shrubbery, they crawled unseen to the little
+door through which Joan de Tany had led him the night before.  Following
+the corridors and vaults beneath the castle, they came to the stone
+stairway, and mounted to the passage which led to the false panel that had
+given the two fugitives egress.
+
+Slipping the spring lock, Norman of Torn entered the apartment followed
+closely by his henchmen.  On they went, through apartment after apartment,
+but no sign of the Earl or his servitors rewarded their search, and it was
+soon apparent that the castle was deserted.
+
+As they came forth into the courtyard, they descried an old man basking in
+the sun, upon a bench.  The sight of them nearly caused the old fellow to
+die of fright, for to see fifty armed men issue from the untenanted halls
+was well reckoned to blanch even a braver cheek.
+
+When Norman of Torn questioned him, he learned that De Fulm had ridden out
+early in the day bound for Dover, where Prince Edward then was.  The outlaw
+knew it would be futile to pursue him, but yet, so fierce was his anger
+against this man, that he ordered his band to mount, and spurring to their
+head, he marched through Middlesex, and crossing the Thames above London,
+entered Surrey late the same afternoon.
+
+As they were going into camp that night in Kent, midway between London and
+Rochester, word came to Norman of Torn that the Earl of Buckingham, having
+sent his escort on to Dover, had stopped to visit the wife of a royalist
+baron, whose husband was with Prince Edward's forces.
+
+The fellow who gave this information was a servant in my lady's household
+who held a grudge against his mistress for some wrong she had done him.
+When, therefore, he found that these grim men were searching for De Fulm,
+he saw a way to be revenged upon his mistress.
+
+"How many swords be there at the castle ?" asked Norman of Torn.
+
+"Scarce a dozen, barring the Earl of Buckingham," replied the knave; "and,
+furthermore, there be a way to enter, which I may show you, My Lord, so
+that you may, unseen, reach the apartment where My Lady and the Earl be
+supping."
+
+"Bring ten men, beside yourself, Shandy," commanded Norman of Torn.  "We
+shall pay a little visit upon our amorous friend, My Lord, the Earl of
+Buckingham."
+
+Half an hour's ride brought them within sight of the castle.  Dismounting,
+and leaving their horses with one of the men, Norman of Torn advanced on
+foot with Shandy and the eight others, close in the wake of the traitorous
+servant.
+
+The fellow led them to the rear of the castle, where, among the brush, he
+had hidden a rude ladder, which, when tilted, spanned the moat and rested
+its farther end upon a window ledge some ten feet above the ground.
+
+"Keep the fellow here till last, Shandy," said the outlaw, "till all be in,
+an' if there be any signs of treachery, stick him through the gizzard --
+death thus be slower and more painful."
+
+So saying, Norman of Torn crept boldly across the improvised bridge, and
+disappeared within the window beyond.  One by one the band of cut-throats
+passed through the little window, until all stood within the castle beside
+their chief; Shandy coming last with the servant.
+
+"Lead me quietly, knave, to the room where My Lord sups," said Norman of
+Torn.  "You, Shandy, place your men where they can prevent my being
+interrupted."
+
+Following a moment or two after Shandy came another figure stealthily
+across the ladder and, as Norman of Torn and his followers left the little
+room, this figure pushed quietly through the window and followed the great
+outlaw down the unlighted corridor.
+
+A moment later, My Lady of Leybourn looked up from her plate upon the grim
+figure of an armored knight standing in the doorway of the great dining
+hall.
+
+"My Lord Earl !" she cried.  "Look !  Behind you."
+
+And as the Earl of Buckingham glanced behind him , he overturned the bench
+upon which he sat in his effort to gain his feet; for My Lord Earl of
+Buckingham had a guilty conscience.
+
+The grim figure raised a restraining hand, as the Earl drew his sword.
+
+"A moment, My Lord," said a low voice in perfect French.
+
+"Who are you ?" cried the lady.
+
+"I be an old friend of My Lord, here; but let me tell you a little story.
+
+"In a grim old castle in Essex, only last night, a great lord of England
+held by force the beautiful daughter of a noble house and, when she spurned
+his advances, he struck her with his clenched fist upon her fair face, and
+with his brute hands choked her.  And in that castle also was a despised
+and hunted outlaw, with a price upon his head, for whose neck the hempen
+noose has been yawning these many years.  And it was this vile person who
+came in time to save the young woman from the noble flower of knighthood
+that would have ruined her young life.
+
+"The outlaw wished to kill the knight, but many men-at-arms came to the
+noble's rescue, and so the outlaw was forced to fly with the girl lest he
+be overcome by numbers, and the girl thus fall again into the hands of her
+tormentor.
+
+"But this crude outlaw was not satisfied with merely rescuing the girl, he
+must needs mete out justice to her noble abductor and collect in full the
+toll of blood which alone can atone for the insult and violence done her.
+
+"My Lady, the young girl was Joan de Tany; the noble was My Lord the Earl
+of Buckingham; and the outlaw stands before you to fulfill the duty he has
+sworn to do.  En garde, My Lord !"
+
+The encounter was short, for Norman of Torn had come to kill, and he had
+been looking through a haze of blood for hours -- in fact every time he had
+thought of those brutal fingers upon the fair throat of Joan de Tany and of
+the cruel blow that had fallen upon her face.
+
+He showed no mercy, but backed the Earl relentlessly into a corner of the
+room, and when he had him there where he could escape in no direction, he
+drove his blade so deep through his putrid heart that the point buried
+itself an inch in the oak panel beyond.
+
+Claudia Leybourn sat frozen with horror at the sight she was witnessing,
+and, as Norman of Torn wrenched his blade from the dead body before him and
+wiped it on the rushes of the floor, she gazed in awful fascination while
+he drew his dagger and made a mark upon the forehead of the dead nobleman.
+
+"Outlaw or Devil," said a stern voice behind them, "Roger Leybourn owes you
+his friendship for saving the honor of his home."
+
+Both turned to discover a mail-clad figure standing in the doorway where
+Norman of Torn had first appeared.
+
+"Roger !" shrieked Claudia Leybourn, and swooned.
+
+"Who be you ?" continued the master of Leybourn addressing the outlaw.
+
+For answer Norman of Torn pointed to the forehead of the dead Earl of
+Buckingham, and there Roger Leybourn saw, in letters of blood, NT.
+
+The Baron advanced with outstretched hand.
+
+"I owe you much.  You have saved my poor, silly wife from this beast, and
+Joan de Tany is my cousin, so I am doubly beholden to you, Norman of Torn."
+
+The outlaw pretended that he did not see the hand.
+
+"You owe me nothing, Sir Roger, that may not be paid by a good supper.  I
+have eaten but once in forty-eight hours."
+
+The outlaw now called to Shandy and his men, telling them to remain on
+watch, but to interfere with no one within the castle.
+
+He then sat at the table with Roger Leybourn and his lady, who had
+recovered from her swoon, and behind them on the rushes of the floor lay
+the body of De Fulm in a little pool of blood.
+
+Leybourn told them that he had heard that De Fulm was at his home, and had
+hastened back; having been in hiding about the castle for half an hour
+before the arrival of Norman of Torn, awaiting an opportunity to enter
+unobserved by the servants.  It was he who had followed across the ladder
+after Shandy.
+
+The outlaw spent the night at the castle of Roger Leybourn; for the first
+time within his memory a welcomed guest under his true name at the house of
+a gentleman.
+
+The following morning, he bade his host goodbye, and returning to his camp
+started on his homeward march toward Torn.
+
+Near midday, as they were approaching the Thames near the environs of
+London, they saw a great concourse of people hooting and jeering at a small
+party of gentlemen and gentlewomen.
+
+Some of the crowd were armed, and from very force of numbers were waxing
+brave to lay violent hands upon the party.  Mud and rocks and rotten
+vegetables were being hurled at the little cavalcade, many of them barely
+missing the women of the party.
+
+Norman of Torn waited to ask no questions, but spurring into the thick of
+it laid right and left of him with the flat of his sword, and his men,
+catching the contagion of it, swarmed after him until the whole pack of
+attacking ruffians were driven into the Thames.
+
+And then, without a backward glance at the party he had rescued, he
+continued on his march toward the north.
+
+The little party sat upon their horses looking in wonder after the
+retreating figures of their deliverers.  Then one of the ladies turned to a
+knight at her side with a word of command and an imperious gesture toward
+the fast disappearing company.  He, thus addressed, put spurs to his horse,
+and rode at a rapid gallop after the outlaw's troop.  In a few moments he
+had overtaken them and reined up beside Norman of Torn.
+
+"Hold, Sir Knight," cried the gentleman, "the Queen would thank you in
+person for your brave defence of her."
+
+Ever keen to see the humor of a situation, Norman of Torn wheeled his horse
+and rode back with the Queen's messenger.
+
+As he faced Her Majesty, the Outlaw of Torn bent low over his pommel.
+
+"You be a strange knight that thinks so lightly on saving a queen's life
+that you ride on without turning your head, as though you had but driven a
+pack of curs from annoying a stray cat," said the Queen.
+
+"I drew in the service of a woman, Your Majesty, not in the service of a
+queen."
+
+"What now !  Wouldst even belittle the act which we all witnessed ?  The
+King, my husband, shall reward thee, Sir Knight, if you but tell me your
+name."
+
+"If I told my name, methinks the King would be more apt to hang me,"
+laughed the outlaw.  "I be Norman of Torn."
+
+The entire party looked with startled astonishment upon him, for none of
+them had ever seen this bold raider whom all the nobility and gentry of
+England feared and hated.
+
+"For lesser acts than that which thou hast just performed, the King has
+pardoned men before," replied Her Majesty.  "But raise your visor, I would
+look upon the face of so notorious a criminal who can yet be a gentleman
+and a loyal protector of his queen."
+
+"They who have looked upon my face, other than my friends," replied Norman
+of Torn quietly, "have never lived to tell what they saw beneath this
+visor, and as for you, Madame, I have learned within the year to fear it
+might mean unhappiness to you to see the visor of the Devil of Torn lifted
+from his face." Without another word he wheeled and galloped back to his
+little army.
+
+"The puppy, the insolent puppy," cried Eleanor of England, in a rage.
+
+And so the Outlaw of Torn and his mother met and parted after a period of
+twenty years.
+
+Two days later, Norman of Torn directed Red Shandy to lead the forces of
+Torn from their Essex camp back to Derby.  The numerous raiding parties
+which had been constantly upon the road during the days they had spent in
+this rich district had loaded the extra sumpter beasts with rich and
+valuable booty and the men, for the time satiated with fighting and loot,
+turned their faces toward Torn with evident satisfaction.
+
+The outlaw was speaking to his captains in council; at his side the old man
+of Torn.
+
+"Ride by easy stages, Shandy, and I will overtake you by tomorrow morning.
+I but ride for a moment to the castle of De Tany on an errand, and, as I
+shall stop there but a few moments, I shall surely join you tomorrow."
+
+"Do not forget, My Lord," said Edwild the Serf, a great yellow-haired Saxon
+giant, "that there be a party of the King's troops camped close by the road
+which branches to Tany."
+
+"I shall give them plenty of room," replied Norman of Torn.  "My neck
+itcheth not to be stretched," and he laughed and mounted.
+
+Five minutes after he had cantered down the road from camp, Spizo the
+Spaniard, sneaking his horse unseen into the surrounding forest, mounted
+and spurred rapidly after him.  The camp, in the throes of packing
+refractory, half broken sumpter animals, and saddling their own wild
+mounts, did not notice his departure.  Only the little grim, gray, old man
+knew that he had gone, or why, or whither.
+
+That afternoon, as Roger de Conde was admitted to the castle of Richard de
+Tany and escorted to a little room where he awaited the coming of the Lady
+Joan, a swarthy messenger handed a letter to the captain of the King's
+soldiers camped a few miles south of Tany.
+
+The officer tore open the seal as the messenger turned and spurred back in
+the direction from which he had come.
+
+And this was what he read:
+
+Norman of Torn is now at the castle of Tany, without escort.
+
+Instantly the call "to arms" and "mount" sounded through the camp and, in
+five minutes, a hundred mercenaries galloped rapidly toward the castle of
+Richard de Tany, in the visions of their captain a great reward and honor
+and preferment for the capture of the mighty outlaw who was now almost
+within his clutches.
+
+Three roads meet at Tany; one from the south along which the King's
+soldiers were now riding; one from the west which had guided Norman of Torn
+from his camp to the castle; and a third which ran northwest through
+Cambridge and Huntingdon toward Derby.
+
+All unconscious of the rapidly approaching foes, Norman of Torn waited
+composedly in the anteroom for Joan de Tany.
+
+Presently she entered, clothed in the clinging house garment of the period;
+a beautiful vision, made more beautiful by the suppressed excitement which
+caused the blood to surge beneath the velvet of her cheek, and her breasts
+to rise and fall above her fast beating heart.
+
+She let him take her fingers in his and raise them to his lips, and then
+they stood looking into each other's eyes in silence for a long moment.
+
+"I do not know how to tell you what I have come to tell," he said sadly.
+"I have not meant to deceive you to your harm, but the temptation to be
+with you and those whom you typify must be my excuse.  I -- " He paused.
+It was easy to tell her that he was the Outlaw of Torn, but if she loved
+him, as he feared, how was he to tell her that he loved only Bertrade de
+Montfort ?
+
+"You need tell me nothing," interrupted Joan de Tany.  "I have guessed what
+you would tell me, Norman of Torn.  'The spell of moonlight and adventure
+is no longer upon us' -- those are your own words, and still I am glad to
+call you friend."
+
+The little emphasis she put upon the last word bespoke the finality of her
+decision that the Outlaw of Torn could be no more than friend to her.
+
+"It is best," he replied, relieved that, as he thought, she felt no love
+for him now that she knew him for what he really was.  "Nothing good could
+come to such as you, Joan, if the Devil of Torn could claim more of you
+than friendship; and so I think that for your peace of mind and for my own,
+we will let it be as though you had never known me.  I thank you that you
+have not been angry with me.  Remember me only to think that in the hills
+of Derby, a sword is at your service, without reward and without price.
+Should you ever need it, Joan, tell me that you will send for me -- wilt
+promise me that, Joan ?"
+
+"I promise, Norman of Torn."
+
+"Farewell," he said, and as he again kissed her hand he bent his knee to
+the ground in reverence.  Then he rose to go, pressing a little packet into
+her palm.  Their eyes met, and the man saw, in that brief instant, deep in
+the azure depths of the girl's that which tumbled the structure of his
+new-found complacency about his ears.
+
+As he rode out into the bright sunlight upon the road which led northwest
+toward Derby, Norman of Torn bowed his head in sorrow, for he realized two
+things.  One was that the girl he had left still loved him, and that some
+day, mayhap tomorrow, she would suffer because she had sent him away; and
+the other was that he did not love her, that his heart was locked in the
+fair breast of Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+He felt himself a beast that he had allowed his loneliness and the aching
+sorrow of his starved, empty heart to lead him into this girl's life.  That
+he had been new to women and newer still to love did not permit him to
+excuse himself, and a hundred times he cursed his folly and stupidity, and
+what he thought was fickleness.
+
+But the unhappy affair had taught him one thing for certain: to know
+without question what love was, and that the memory of Bertrade de
+Montfort's lips would always be more to him than all the allurements
+possessed by the balance of the women of the world, no matter how charming,
+or how beautiful.
+
+Another thing, a painful thing he had learned from it, too, that the
+attitude of Joan de Tany, daughter of an old and noble house, was but the
+attitude which the Outlaw of Torn must expect from any good woman of her
+class; what he must expect from Bertrade de Montfort when she learned that
+Roger de Conde was Norman of Torn.
+
+The outlaw had scarce passed out of sight upon the road to Derby ere the
+girl, who still stood in an embrasure of the south tower, gazing with
+strangely drawn, sad face up the road which had swallowed him, saw a body
+of soldiers galloping rapidly toward Tany from the south.
+
+The King's banner waved above their heads, and intuitively, Joan de Tany
+knew for whom they sought at her father's castle.  Quickly she hastened to
+the outer barbican that it might be she who answered their hail rather than
+one of the men-at-arms on watch there.
+
+She had scarcely reached the ramparts of the outer gate ere the King's men
+drew rein before the castle.
+
+In reply to their hail, Joan de Tany asked their mission.
+
+"We seek the outlaw, Norman of Torn, who hides now within this castle,"
+replied the officer.
+
+"There be no outlaw here," replied the girl, "but, if you wish, you may
+enter with half a dozen men and search the castle."
+
+This the officer did and, when he had assured himself that Norman of Torn
+was not within, an hour had passed, and Joan de Tany felt certain that the
+Outlaw of Torn was too far ahead to be caught by the King's men; so she
+said:
+
+"There was one here just before you came who called himself though by
+another name than Norman of Torn.  Possibly it is he ye seek."
+
+"Which way rode he ?" cried the officer.
+
+"Straight toward the west by the middle road," lied Joan de Tany.  And, as
+the officer hurried from the castle and, with his men at his back, galloped
+furiously away toward the west, the girl sank down upon a bench, pressing
+her little hands to her throbbing temples.
+
+Then she opened the packet which Norman of Torn had handed her, and within
+found two others.  In one of these was a beautiful jeweled locket, and on
+the outside were the initials JT, and on the inside the initials NT; in the
+other was a golden hair ornament set with precious stones, and about it was
+wound a strand of her own silken tresses.
+
+She looked long at the little trinkets and then, pressing them against her
+lips, she threw herself face down upon an oaken bench, her lithe young form
+racked with sobs.
+
+She was indeed but a little girl chained by the inexorable bonds of caste
+to a false ideal.  Birth and station spelled honor to her, and honor, to
+the daughter of an English noble, was a mightier force even than love.
+
+That Norman of Torn was an outlaw she might have forgiven, but that he was,
+according to report, a low fellow of no birth placed an impassable barrier
+between them.
+
+For hours the girl lay sobbing upon the bench, whilst within her raged the
+mighty battle of the heart against the head.
+
+Thus her mother found her, and kneeling beside her, and with her arms about
+the girl's neck, tried to soothe her and to learn the cause of her sorrow.
+Finally it came, poured from the flood gates of a sorrowing heart; that
+wave of bitter misery and hopelessness which not even a mother's love could
+check.
+
+"Joan, my dear daughter," cried Lady de Tany, "I sorrow with thee that thy
+love has been cast upon so bleak and impossible a shore.  But it be better
+that thou hast learnt the truth ere it were too late; for, take my word
+upon it, Joan, the bitter humiliation such an alliance must needs have
+brought upon thee and thy father's house would soon have cooled thy love;
+nor could his have survived the sneers and affronts even the menials would
+have put upon him."
+
+"Oh, mother, but I love him so," moaned the girl.  "I did not know how much
+until he had gone, and the King's officer had come to search for him, and
+then the thought that all the power of a great throne and the mightiest
+houses of an entire kingdom were turned in hatred against him raised the
+hot blood of anger within me and the knowledge of my love surged through
+all my being.  Mother, thou canst not know the honor, and the bravery, and
+the chivalry of the man as I do.  Not since Arthur of Silures kept his
+round table hath ridden forth upon English soil so true a knight as Norman
+man of Torn.
+
+"Couldst thou but have seen him fight, my mother, and witnessed the honor
+of his treatment of thy daughter, and heard the tone of dignified respect
+in which he spoke of women thou wouldst have loved him, too, and felt that
+outlaw though he be, he is still more a gentleman than nine-tenths the
+nobles of England."
+
+"But his birth, my daughter !" argued the Lady de Tany.  "Some even say
+that the gall marks of his brass collar still showeth upon his neck, and
+others that he knoweth not himself the name of his own father, nor had he
+any mother."
+
+Ah, but this was the mighty argument !  Naught could the girl say to
+justify so heinous a crime as low birth.  What a man did in those rough
+cruel days might be forgotten and forgiven but the sins of his mother or
+his grandfather in not being of noble blood, no matter howsoever wickedly
+attained, he might never overcome or live down.
+
+Torn by conflicting emotions, the poor girl dragged herself to her own
+apartment and there upon a restless, sleepless couch, beset by wild,
+impossible hopes, and vain, torturing regrets, she fought out the long,
+bitter night; until toward morning she solved the problem of her misery in
+the only way that seemed possible to her poor, tired, bleeding, little
+heart.  When the rising sun shone through the narrow window, it found Joan
+de Tany at peace with all about her; the carved golden hilt of the toy that
+had hung at her girdle protruded from her breast, and a thin line of
+crimson ran across the snowy skin to a little pool upon the sheet beneath
+her.
+
+And so the cruel hand of a mighty revenge had reached out to crush another
+innocent victim.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+When word of the death of Joan de Tany reached Torn, no man could tell from
+outward appearance the depth of the suffering which the sad intelligence
+wrought on the master of Torn.
+
+All that they who followed him knew was that certain unusual orders were
+issued, and that that same night, the ten companies rode south toward Essex
+without other halt than for necessary food and water for man and beast.
+
+When the body of Joan de Tany rode forth from her father's castle to the
+church at Colchester, and again as it was brought back to its final resting
+place in the castle's crypt, a thousand strange and silent knights, black
+draped, upon horses trapped in black, rode slowly behind the bier.
+
+Silently they had come in the night preceding the funeral, and as silently,
+they slipped away northward into the falling shadows of the following
+night.
+
+No word had passed between those of the castle and the great troop of
+sable-clad warriors, but all within knew that the mighty Outlaw of Torn had
+come to pay homage to the memory of the daughter of De Tany, and all but
+the grieving mother wondered at the strangeness of the act.
+
+As the horde of Torn approached their Derby stronghold, their young leader
+turned the command over to Red Shandy and dismounted at the door of Father
+Claude's cottage.
+
+"I am tired, Father," said the outlaw as he threw himself upon his
+accustomed bench.  "Naught but sorrow and death follow in my footsteps.  I
+and all my acts be accurst, and upon those I love, the blight falleth."
+
+"Alter thy ways, my son; follow my advice ere it be too late.  Seek out a
+new and better life in another country and carve thy future into the
+semblance of glory and honor."
+
+"Would that I might, my friend," answered Norman of Torn.  "But hast thou
+thought on the consequences which surely would follow should I thus remove
+both heart and head from the thing that I have built ?
+
+"What suppose thou would result were Norman of Torn to turn his great band
+of cut-throats, leaderless, upon England ?  Hast thought on't, Father ?
+
+"Wouldst thou draw a single breath in security if thou knew Edwild the Serf
+were ranging unchecked through Derby ?  Edwild, whose father was torn limb
+from limb upon the rack because he would not confess to killing a buck in
+the new forest, a buck which fell before the arrow of another man; Edwild,
+whose mother was burned for witchcraft by Holy Church.
+
+"And Horsan the Dane, Father.  How thinkest thou the safety of the roads
+would be for either rich or poor an I turned Horsan the Dane loose upon
+ye ?
+
+"And Pensilo, the Spanish Don !  A great captain, but a man absolutely
+without bowels of compassion.  When first he joined us and saw our mark
+upon the foreheads of our dead, wishing to out-Herod Herod, he marked the
+living which fell into his hands with a red hot iron, branding a great P
+upon each cheek and burning out the right eye completely.  Wouldst like to
+feel, Father, that Don Piedro Castro y Pensilo ranged free through forest
+and hill of England ?
+
+"And Red Shandy, and the two Florys, and Peter the Hermit, and One Eye
+Kanty, and Gropello, and Campanee, and Cobarth, and Mandecote, and the
+thousand others, each with a special hatred for some particular class or
+individual, and all filled with the lust of blood and rapine and loot.
+
+"No, Father, I may not go yet, for the England I have been taught to hate,
+I have learned to love, and I have it not in my heart to turn loose upon
+her fair breast the beasts of hell who know no law or order or decency
+other than that which I enforce."
+
+As Norman of Torn ceased speaking, the priest sat silent for many minutes.
+
+"Thou hast indeed a grave responsibility, my son," he said at last.  "Thou
+canst not well go unless thou takest thy horde with thee out of England,
+but even that may be possible; who knows other than God ?"
+
+"For my part" laughed the outlaw, "I be willing to leave it in His hands;
+which seems to be the way with Christians.  When one would shirk a
+responsibility, or explain an error, lo, one shoulders it upon the Lord."
+
+"I fear, my son," said the priest, "that what seed of reverence I have
+attempted to plant within thy breast hath borne poor fruit."
+
+"That dependeth upon the viewpoint, Father; as I take not the Lord into
+partnership in my successes it seemeth to me to be but of a mean and poor
+spirit to saddle my sorrows and perplexities upon Him.  I may be wrong, for
+I am ill-versed in religious matters, but my conception of God and
+scapegoat be not that they are synonymous."
+
+"Religion, my son, be a bootless subject for argument between friends,"
+replied the priest, "and further, there be that nearer my heart just now
+which I would ask thee.  I may offend, but thou know I do not mean to.  The
+question I would ask, is, dost wholly trust the old man whom thou call
+father ?"
+
+"I know of no treachery," replied the outlaw, "which he hath ever conceived
+against me.  Why ?"
+
+"I ask because I have written to Simon de Montfort asking him to meet me
+and two others here upon an important matter.  I have learned that he
+expects to be at his Leicester castle, for a few days, within the week.  He
+is to notify me when he will come and I shall then send for thee and the
+old man of Torn; but it were as well, my son, that thou do not mention this
+matter to thy father, nor let him know when thou come hither to the meeting
+that De Montfort is to be present."
+
+"As you say, Father," replied Norman of Torn.  "I do not make head nor tail
+of thy wondrous intrigues, but that thou wish it done thus or so is
+sufficient.  I must be off to Torn now, so I bid thee farewell."
+
+Until the following Spring, Norman of Torn continued to occupy himself with
+occasional pillages against the royalists of the surrounding counties, and
+his patrols so covered the public highways that it became a matter of
+grievous import to the King's party, for no one was safe in the district
+who even so much as sympathized with the King's cause, and many were the
+dead foreheads that bore the grim mark of the Devil of Torn.
+
+Though he had never formally espoused the cause of the barons, it now
+seemed a matter of little doubt but that, in any crisis, his grisly banner
+would be found on their side.
+
+The long winter evenings within the castle of Torn were often spent in
+rough, wild carousals in the great hall where a thousand men might sit at
+table singing, fighting and drinking until the gray dawn stole in through
+the east windows, or Peter the Hermit, the fierce majordomo, tired of the
+din and racket, came stalking into the chamber with drawn sword and laid
+upon the revellers with the flat of it to enforce the authority of his
+commands to disperse.
+
+Norman of Torn and the old man seldom joined in these wild orgies, but when
+minstrel, or troubadour, or storyteller wandered to his grim lair, the
+Outlaw of Torn would sit enjoying the break in the winter's dull monotony
+to as late an hour as another; nor could any man of his great fierce horde
+outdrink their chief when he cared to indulge in the pleasures of the wine
+cup.  The only effect that liquor seemed to have upon him was to increase
+his desire to fight, so that he was wont to pick needless quarrels and to
+resort to his sword for the slightest, or for no provocation at all.  So,
+for this reason, he drank but seldom since he always regretted the things
+he did under the promptings of that other self which only could assert its
+ego when reason was threatened with submersion.
+
+Often on these evenings, the company was entertained by stories from the
+wild, roving lives of its own members.  Tales of adventure, love, war and
+death in every known corner of the world; and the ten captains told, each,
+his story of how he came to be of Torn; and thus, with fighting enough by
+day to keep them good humored, the winter passed, and spring came with the
+ever wondrous miracle of awakening life, with soft zephyrs, warm rain, and
+sunny skies.
+
+Through all the winter, Father Claude had been expecting to hear from Simon
+de Montfort, but not until now did he receive a message which told the good
+priest that his letter had missed the great baron and had followed him
+around until he had but just received it.  The message closed with these
+words:
+
+"Any clew, however vague, which might lead nearer to a true knowledge of
+the fate of Prince Richard, we shall most gladly receive and give our best
+attention.  Therefore, if thou wilst find it convenient, we shall visit
+thee, good father, on the fifth day from today."
+
+Spizo, the Spaniard, had seen De Montfort's man leave the note with Father
+Claude and he had seen the priest hide it under a great bowl on his table,
+so that when the good father left his cottage, it was the matter of but a
+moment's work for Spizo to transfer the message from its hiding place to
+the breast of his tunic.  The fellow could not read, but he to whom he took
+the missive could, laboriously, decipher the Latin in which it was penned.
+
+The old man of Torn fairly trembled with suppressed rage as the full
+purport of this letter flashed upon him.  It had been years since he had
+heard aught of the search for the little lost prince of England, and now
+that the period of his silence was drawing to a close, now that more and
+more often opportunities were opening up to him to wreak the last shred of
+his terrible vengeance, the very thought of being thwarted at the final
+moment staggered his comprehension.
+
+"On the fifth day," he repeated.  "That is the day on which we were to ride
+south again.  Well, we shall ride, and Simon de Montfort shall not talk
+with thee, thou fool priest."
+
+That same spring evening in the year 1264, a messenger drew rein before the
+walls of Torn and, to the challenge of the watch, cried:
+
+"A royal messenger from His Illustrious Majesty, Henry, by the grace of
+God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, to Norman of
+Torn, Open, in the name of the King !"
+
+Norman of Torn directed that the King's messenger be admitted, and the
+knight was quickly ushered into the great hall of the castle.
+
+The outlaw presently entered in full armor, with visor lowered.
+
+The bearing of the King's officer was haughty and arrogant, as became a man
+of birth when dealing with a low born knave.
+
+"His Majesty has deigned to address you, sirrah," he said, withdrawing a
+parchment from his breast.  "And, as you doubtless cannot read, I will read
+the King's commands to you."
+
+"I can read," replied Norman of Torn, "whatever the King can write.  Unless
+it be," he added, "that the King writes no better than he rules."
+
+The messenger scowled angrily, crying:
+
+"It ill becomes such a low fellow to speak thus disrespectfully of our
+gracious King.  If he were less generous, he would have sent you a halter
+rather than this message which I bear."
+
+"A bridle for thy tongue, my friend," replied Norman of Torn, "were in
+better taste than a halter for my neck.  But come, let us see what the King
+writes to his friend, the Outlaw of Torn."
+
+Taking the parchment from the messenger, Norman of Torn read:
+
+Henry, by Grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of
+Aquitaine; to Norman of Torn:
+
+Since it has been called to our notice that you be harassing and plundering
+the persons and property of our faithful lieges ---
+
+We therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in us by Almighty God, do
+command that you cease these nefarious practices ---
+
+And further, through the gracious intercession of Her Majesty, Queen
+Eleanor, we do offer you full pardon for all your past crimes ---
+
+Provided, you repair at once to the town of Lewes, with all the fighting
+men, your followers, prepared to protect the security of our person, and
+wage war upon those enemies of England, Simon de Montfort, Gilbert de Clare
+and their accomplices, who even now are collected to threaten and menace
+our person and kingdom ---
+
+Or, otherwise, shall you suffer death, by hanging, for your long unpunished
+crimes.  Witnessed myself, at Lewes, on May the third, in the forty-eighth
+year of our reign.
+
+HENRY, REX.
+
+"The closing paragraph be unfortunately worded," said Norman of Torn, "for
+because of it shall the King's messenger eat the King's message, and thus
+take back in his belly the answer of Norman of Torn." And crumpling the
+parchment in his hand, he advanced toward the royal emissary.
+
+The knight whipped out his sword, but the Devil of Torn was even quicker,
+so that it seemed that the King's messenger had deliberately hurled his
+weapon across the room, so quickly did the outlaw disarm him.
+
+And then Norman of Torn took the man by the neck with one powerful hand
+and, despite his struggles, and the beating of his mailed fists, bent him
+back upon the table, and there, forcing his teeth apart with the point of
+his sword, Norman of Torn rammed the King's message down the knight's
+throat; wax, parchment and all.
+
+It was a crestfallen gentleman who rode forth from the castle of Torn a
+half hour later and spurred rapidly - in his head a more civil tongue.
+
+When, two days later, he appeared before the King at Winchelsea and
+reported the outcome of his mission, Henry raged and stormed, swearing by
+all the saints in the calendar that Norman of Torn should hang for his
+effrontery before the snow flew again.
+
+News of the fighting between the barons and the King's forces at Rochester,
+Battel and elsewhere reached the ears of Norman of Torn a few days after
+the coming of the King's message, but at the same time came other news
+which hastened his departure toward the south.  This latter word was that
+Bertrade de Montfort and her mother, accompanied by Prince Philip, had
+landed at Dover, and that upon the same boat had come Peter of Colfax back
+to England -- the latter, doubtless reassured by the strong conviction,
+which held in the minds of all royalists at that time, of the certainty of
+victory for the royal arms in the impending conflict with the rebel barons.
+
+Norman of Torn had determined that he would see Bertrade de Montfort once
+again, and clear his conscience by a frank avowal of his identity.  He knew
+what the result must be.  His experience with Joan de Tany had taught him
+that.  But the fine sense of chivalry which ever dominated all his acts
+where the happiness or honor of women were concerned urged him to give
+himself over as a sacrifice upon the altar of a woman's pride, that it
+might be she who spurned and rejected; for, as it must appear now, it had
+been he whose love had grown cold.  It was a bitter thing to contemplate,
+for not alone would the mighty pride of the man be lacerated, but a great
+love.
+
+Two days before the start of the march, Spizo, the Spaniard, reported to
+the old man of Torn that he had overheard Father Claude ask Norman of Torn
+to come with his father to the priest's cottage the morning of the march to
+meet Simon de Montfort upon an important matter, but what the nature of the
+thing was the priest did not reveal to the outlaw.
+
+This report seemed to please the little, grim, gray old man more than aught
+he had heard in several days; for it made it apparent that the priest had
+not as yet divulged the tenor of his conjecture to the Outlaw of Torn.
+
+On the evening of the day preceding that set for the march south, a little,
+wiry figure, grim and gray, entered the cottage of Father Claude.  No man
+knows what words passed between the good priest and his visitor nor the
+details of what befell within the four walls of the little cottage that
+night; but some half hour only elapsed before the little, grim, gray man
+emerged from the darkened interior and hastened upward upon the rocky trail
+into the hills, a cold smile of satisfaction on his lips.
+
+The castle of Torn was filled with the rush and rattle of preparation early
+the following morning, for by eight o'clock the column was to march.  The
+courtyard was filled with hurrying squires and lackeys.  War horses were
+being groomed and caparisoned; sumpter beasts, snubbed to great posts, were
+being laden with the tents, bedding, and belongings of the men; while those
+already packed were wandering loose among the other animals and men.  There
+was squealing, biting, kicking, and cursing as animals fouled one another
+with their loads, or brushed against some tethered war horse.
+
+Squires were running hither and thither, or aiding their masters to don
+armor, lacing helm to hauberk, tying the points of ailette, coude, and
+rondel; buckling cuisse and jambe to thigh and leg.  The open forges of
+armorer and smithy smoked and hissed, and the din of hammer on anvil rose
+above the thousand lesser noises of the castle courts, the shouting of
+commands, the rattle of steel, the ringing of iron hoof on stone flags, as
+these artificers hastened, sweating and cursing, through the eleventh hour
+repairs to armor, lance and sword, or to reset a shoe upon a refractory,
+plunging beast.
+
+Finally the captains came, armored cap-a-pie, and with them some semblance
+of order and quiet out of chaos and bedlam.  First the sumpter beasts, all
+loaded now, were driven, with a strong escort, to the downs below the
+castle and there held to await the column.  Then, one by one, the companies
+were formed and marched out beneath fluttering pennon and waving banner to
+the martial strains of bugle and trumpet.
+
+Last of all came the catapults, those great engines of destruction which
+hurled two hundred pound boulders with mighty force against the walls of
+beleaguered castles.
+
+And after all had passed through the great gates, Norman of Torn and the
+little old man walked side by side from the castle building and mounted
+their chargers held by two squires in the center of the courtyard.
+
+Below, on the downs, the column was forming in marching order, and as the
+two rode out to join it, the little old man turned to Norman of Torn,
+saying,
+
+"I had almost forgot a message I have for you, my son.  Father Claude sent
+word last evening that he had been called suddenly south, and that some
+appointment you had with him must therefore be deferred until later.  He
+said that you would understand." The old man eyed his companion narrowly
+through the eye slit in his helm.
+
+"'Tis passing strange," said Norman of Torn but that was his only comment.
+And so they joined the column which moved slowly down toward the valley and
+as they passed the cottage of Father Claude, Norman of Torn saw that the
+door was closed and that there was no sign of life about the place.  A wave
+of melancholy passed over him, for the deserted aspect of the little
+flower-hedged cote seemed dismally prophetic of a near future without the
+beaming, jovial face of his friend and adviser.
+
+Scarcely had the horde of Torn passed out of sight down the east edge of
+the valley ere a party of richly dressed knights, coming from the south by
+another road along the west bank of the river, crossed over and drew rein
+before the cottage of Father Claude.
+
+As their hails were unanswered, one of the party dismounted to enter the
+building.
+
+"Have a care, My Lord," cried his companion.  "This be over-close to the
+Castle Torn and there may easily be more treachery than truth in the
+message which called thee thither."
+
+"Fear not," replied Simon de Montfort, "the Devil of Torn hath no quarrel
+with me." Striding up the little path, he knocked loudly on the door.
+Receiving no reply, he pushed it open and stepped into the dim light of the
+interior.  There he found his host, the good father Claude, stretched upon
+his back on the floor, the breast of his priestly robes dark with dried and
+clotted blood.
+
+Turning again to the door, De Montfort summoned a couple of his companions.
+
+"The secret of the little lost prince of England be a dangerous burden for
+a man to carry," he said.  "But this convinces me more than any words the
+priest might have uttered that the abductor be still in England, and
+possibly Prince Richard also."
+
+A search of the cottage revealed the fact that it had been ransacked
+thoroughly by the assassin.  The contents of drawer and box littered every
+room, though that the object was not rich plunder was evidenced by many
+pieces of jewelry and money which remained untouched.
+
+"The true object lies here," said De Montfort, pointing to the open hearth
+upon which lay the charred remains of many papers and documents.  "All
+written evidence has been destroyed, but hold what lieth here beneath the
+table ?" and, stooping, the Earl of Leicester picked up a sheet of
+parchment on which a letter had been commenced.  It was addressed to him,
+and he read it aloud:
+
+Lest some unforeseen chance should prevent the accomplishment of our
+meeting, My Lord Earl, I send thee this by one who knoweth not either its
+contents or the suspicions which I will narrate herein.
+
+He who bareth this letter, I truly believe to be the lost Prince Richard.
+Question him closely, My Lord, and I know that thou wilt be as positive as
+I.
+
+Of his past, thou know nearly as much as I, though thou may not know the
+wondrous chivalry and true nobility of character of him men call ---
+
+Here the letter stopped, evidently cut short by the dagger of the assassin.
+
+"Mon Dieu !  The damnable luck !" cried De Montfort, "but a second more and
+the name we have sought for twenty years would have been writ.  Didst ever
+see such hellish chance as plays into the hand of the fiend incarnate since
+that long gone day when his sword pierced the heart of Lady Maud by the
+postern gate beside the Thames ?  The Devil himself must watch o'er him.
+
+"There be naught more we can do here," he continued.  "I should have been
+on my way to Fletching hours since.  Come, my gentlemen, we will ride south
+by way of Leicester and have the good Fathers there look to the decent
+burial of this holy man."
+
+The party mounted and rode rapidly away.  Noon found them at Leicester, and
+three days later, they rode into the baronial camp at Fletching.
+
+At almost the same hour, the monks of the Abbey of Leicester performed the
+last rites of Holy Church for the peace of the soul of Father Claude and
+consigned his clay to the churchyard.
+
+And thus another innocent victim of an insatiable hate and vengeance which
+had been born in the King's armory twenty years before passed from the eyes
+of men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+While Norman of Torn and his thousand fighting men marched slowly south on
+the road toward Dover, the army of Simon de Montfort was preparing for its
+advance upon Lewes, where King Henry, with his son Prince Edward, and his
+brother, Prince Richard, King of the Romans, together with the latter's
+son, were entrenched with their forces, sixty thousand strong.
+
+Before sunrise on a May morning in the year 1264, the barons' army set out
+from its camp at Fletching, nine miles from Lewes and, marching through
+dense forests, reached a point two miles from the city, unobserved.
+
+From here, they ascended the great ridge of the hills up the valley Combe,
+the projecting shoulder of the Downs covering their march from the town.
+The King's party, however, had no suspicion that an attack was imminent
+and, in direct contrast to the methods of the baronial troops, had spent
+the preceding night in drunken revelry, so that they were quite taken by
+surprise.
+
+It is true that Henry had stationed an outpost upon the summit of the hill
+in advance of Lewes, but so lax was discipline in his army that the
+soldiers, growing tired of the duty, had abandoned the post toward morning,
+and returned to town, leaving but a single man on watch.  He, left alone,
+had promptly fallen asleep, and thus De Montfort's men found and captured
+him within sight of the bell-tower of the Priory of Lewes, where the King
+and his royal allies lay peacefully asleep, after their night of wine and
+dancing and song.
+
+Had it not been for an incident which now befell, the baronial army would
+doubtless have reached the city without being detected, but it happened
+that, the evening before, Henry had ordered a foraging party to ride forth
+at daybreak, as provisions for both men and beasts were low.
+
+This party had scarcely left the city behind them ere they fell into the
+hands of the baronial troops.  Though some few were killed or captured,
+those who escaped were sufficient to arouse the sleeping army of the
+royalists to the close proximity and gravity of their danger.
+
+By this time, the four divisions of De Montfort's army were in full view of
+the town.  On the left were the Londoners under Nicholas de Segrave; in the
+center rode De Clare, with John Fitz-John and William de Monchensy, at the
+head of a large division which occupied that branch of the hill which
+descended a gentle, unbroken slope to the town.  The right wing was
+commanded by Henry de Montfort, the oldest son of Simon de Montfort, and
+with him was the third son, Guy, as well as John de Burgh and Humphrey de
+Bohun.  The reserves were under Simon de Montfort himself.
+
+Thus was the flower of English chivalry pitted against the King and his
+party, which included many nobles whose kinsmen were with De Montfort; so
+that brother faced brother, and father fought against son, on that bloody
+Wednesday, before the old town of Lewes.
+
+Prince Edward was the first of the royal party to take the field and, as he
+issued from the castle with his gallant company, banners and pennons
+streaming in the breeze and burnished armor and flashing blade
+scintillating in the morning sunlight, he made a gorgeous and impressive
+spectacle as he hurled himself upon the Londoners, whom he had selected for
+attack because of the affront they had put upon his mother that day at
+London on the preceding July.
+
+So vicious was his onslaught that the poorly armed and unprotected
+burghers, unused to the stern game of war, fell like sheep before the iron
+men on their iron shod horses.  The long lances, the heavy maces, the
+six-bladed battle axes, and the well-tempered swords of the knights played
+havoc among them, so that the rout was complete; but, not content with
+victory, Prince Edward must glut his vengeance, and so he pursued the
+citizens for miles, butchering great numbers of them, while many more were
+drowned in attempting to escape across the Ouse.
+
+The left wing of the royalist army, under the King of the Romans and his
+gallant son, was not so fortunate, for they met a determined resistance at
+the hands of Henry de Montfort.
+
+The central divisions of the two armies seemed well matched also, and thus
+the battle continued throughout the day, the greatest advantage appearing
+to lie with the King's troops.  Had Edward not gone so far afield in
+pursuit of the Londoners, the victory might easily have been on the side of
+the royalists early in the day, but by thus eliminating his division after
+defeating a part of De Montfort's army, it was as though neither of these
+two forces had been engaged.
+
+The wily Simon de Montfort had attempted a little ruse which centered the
+fighting for a time upon the crest of one of the hills.  He had caused his
+car to be placed there, with the tents and luggage of many of his leaders,
+under a small guard, so that the banners there displayed, together with the
+car, led the King of the Romans to believe that the Earl himself lay there,
+for Simon de Montfort had but a month or so before suffered an injury to
+his hip when his horse fell with him, and the royalists were not aware that
+he had recovered sufficiently to again mount a horse.
+
+And so it was that the forces under the King of the Romans pushed back the
+men of Henry de Montfort, and ever and ever closer to the car came the
+royalists until they were able to fall upon it, crying out insults against
+the old Earl and commanding him to come forth.  And when they had killed
+the occupants of the car, they found that Simon de Montfort was not among
+them, but instead he had fastened there three important citizens of London,
+old men and influential, who had opposed him, and aided and abetted the
+King.
+
+So great was the wrath of Prince Richard, King of the Romans, that he fell
+upon the baronial troops with renewed vigor, and slowly but steadily beat
+them back from the town.
+
+This sight, together with the routing of the enemy's left wing by Prince
+Edward, so cheered and inspired the royalists that the two remaining
+divisions took up the attack with refreshed spirits so that, what a moment
+before had hung in the balance, now seemed an assured victory for King
+Henry.
+
+Both De Montfort and the King had thrown themselves into the melee with all
+their reserves.  No longer was there semblance of organization.  Division
+was inextricably bemingled with division; friend and foe formed a jumbled
+confusion of fighting, cursing chaos, over which whipped the angry pennons
+and banners of England's noblest houses.
+
+That the mass seemed moving ever away from Lewes indicated that the King's
+arms were winning toward victory, and so it might have been had not a new
+element been infused into the battle; for now upon the brow of the hill to
+the north of them appeared a great horde of armored knights, and as they
+came into position where they could view the battle, the leader raised his
+sword on high, and, as one man, the thousand broke into a mad charge.
+
+Both De Montfort and the King ceased fighting as they gazed upon this body
+of fresh, well armored, well mounted reinforcements.  Whom might they be ?
+To which side owned they allegiance ?  And, then, as the black falcon wing
+on the banners of the advancing horsemen became distinguishable, they saw
+that it was the Outlaw of Torn.
+
+Now he was close upon them, and had there been any doubt before, the wild
+battle cry which rang from a thousand fierce throats turned the hopes of
+the royalists cold within their breasts.
+
+"For De Montfort !  For De Montfort !" and "Down with Henry !" rang loud
+and clear above the din of battle.
+
+Instantly the tide turned, and it was by only the barest chance that the
+King himself escaped capture, and regained the temporary safety of Lewes.
+
+The King of the Romans took refuge within an old mill, and here it was that
+Norman of Torn found him barricaded.  When the door was broken down, the
+outlaw entered and dragged the monarch forth with his own hand to the feet
+of De Montfort, and would have put him to death had not the Earl
+intervened.
+
+"I have yet to see my mark upon the forehead of a King," said Norman of
+Torn, "and the temptation be great; but, an you ask it, My Lord Earl, his
+life shall be yours to do with as you see fit."
+
+"You have fought well this day, Norman of Torn," replied De Montfort.
+"Verily do I believe we owe our victory to you alone; so do not mar the
+record of a noble deed by wanton acts of atrocity."
+
+"It is but what they had done to me, were I the prisoner instead," retorted
+the outlaw.
+
+And Simon de Montfort could not answer that, for it was but the simple
+truth.
+
+"How comes it, Norman of Torn," asked De Montfort as they rode together
+toward Lewes, "that you threw the weight of your sword upon the side of the
+barons ?  Be it because you hate the King more ?"
+
+"I do not know that I hate either, My Lord Earl," replied the outlaw.  "I
+have been taught since birth to hate you all, but why I should hate was
+never told me.  Possibly it be but a bad habit that will yield to my
+maturer years.
+
+"As for why I fought as I did today," he continued, "it be because the
+heart of Lady Bertrade, your daughter, be upon your side.  Had it been with
+the King, her uncle, Norman of Torn had fought otherwise than he has this
+day.  So you see, My Lord Earl, you owe me no gratitude.  Tomorrow I may be
+pillaging your friends as of yore."
+
+Simon de Montfort turned to look at him, but the blank wall of his lowered
+visor gave no sign of the thoughts that passed beneath.
+
+"You do much for a mere friendship, Norman of Torn," said the Earl coldly,
+"and I doubt me not but that my daughter has already forgot you.  An
+English noblewoman, preparing to become a princess of France, does not have
+much thought to waste upon highwaymen." His tone, as well as his words were
+studiously arrogant and insulting, for it had stung the pride of this
+haughty noble to think that a low-born knave boasted the friendship of his
+daughter.
+
+Norman of Torn made no reply, and could the Earl of Leicester have seen his
+face, he had been surprised to note that instead of grim hatred and
+resentment, the features of the Outlaw of Torn were drawn in lines of pain
+and sorrow; for he read in the attitude of the father what he might expect
+to receive at the hands of the daughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+When those of the royalists who had not deserted the King and fled
+precipitately toward the coast had regained the castle and the Priory, the
+city was turned over to looting and rapine.  In this, Norman of Torn and
+his men did not participate, but camped a little apart from the town until
+daybreak the following morning, when they started east, toward Dover.
+
+They marched until late the following evening, passing some twenty miles
+out of their way to visit a certain royalist stronghold.  The troops
+stationed there had fled, having been appraised some few hours earlier, by
+fugitives, of the defeat of Henry's army at Lewes.
+
+Norman of Torn searched the castle for the one he sought, but, finding it
+entirely deserted, continued his eastward march.  Some few miles farther
+on, he overtook a party of deserting royalist soldiery, and from them he
+easily, by dint of threats, elicited the information he desired: the
+direction taken by the refugees from the deserted castle, their number, and
+as close a description of the party as the soldiers could give.
+
+Again he was forced to change the direction of his march, this time heading
+northward into Kent.  It was dark before he reached his destination, and
+saw before him the familiar outlines of the castle of Roger de Leybourn.
+This time, the outlaw threw his fierce horde completely around the
+embattled pile before he advanced with a score of sturdy ruffians to
+reconnoiter.
+
+Making sure that the drawbridge was raised, and that he could not hope for
+stealthy entrance there, he crept silently to the rear of the great
+building and there, among the bushes, his men searched for the ladder that
+Norman of Torn had seen the knavish servant of My Lady Claudia unearth,
+that the outlaw might visit the Earl of Buckingham, unannounced.
+
+Presently they found it, and it was the work of but a moment to raise it to
+the sill of the low window, so that soon the twenty stood beside their
+chief within the walls of Leybourn.
+
+Noiselessly, they moved through the halls and corridors of the castle until
+a maid, bearing a great pasty from the kitchen, turned a sudden corner and
+bumped full into the Outlaw of Torn.  With a shriek that might have been
+heard at Lewes, she dropped the dish upon the stone floor and, turning,
+ran, still shrieking at the top of her lungs, straight for the great dining
+hall.
+
+So close behind her came the little band of outlaws that scarce had the
+guests arisen in consternation from the table at the shrill cries of the
+girl than Norman of Torn burst through the great door with twenty drawn
+swords at his back.
+
+The hall was filled with knights and gentlewomen and house servants and
+men-at-arms.  Fifty swords flashed from fifty scabbards as the men of the
+party saw the hostile appearance of their visitors, but before a blow could
+be struck, Norman of Torn, grasping his sword in his right hand, raised his
+left aloft in a gesture for silence.
+
+"Hold !" he cried, and, turning directly to Roger de Leybourn, "I have no
+quarrel with thee, My Lord, but again I come for a guest within thy halls.
+Methinks thou hast as bad taste in whom thou entertains as didst thy fair
+lady."
+
+"Who be ye, that thus rudely breaks in upon the peace of my castle, and
+makes bold to insult my guests ?" demanded Roger de Leybourn.
+
+"Who be I !  If you wait, you shall see my mark upon the forehead of yon
+grinning baboon," replied the outlaw, pointing a mailed finger at one who
+had been seated close to De Leybourn.
+
+All eyes turned in the direction that the rigid finger of the outlaw
+indicated, and there indeed was a fearful apparition of a man.  With livid
+face he stood, leaning for support against the table; his craven knees
+wabbling beneath his fat carcass; while his lips were drawn apart against
+his yellow teeth in a horrid grimace of awful fear.
+
+"If you recognize me not, Sir Roger," said Norman of Torn, drily, "it is
+evident that your honored guest hath a better memory."
+
+At last the fear-struck man found his tongue, and, though his eyes never
+left the menacing figure of the grim, iron-clad outlaw, he addressed the
+master of Leybourn; shrieking in a high, awe-emasculated falsetto:
+
+"Seize him !  Kill him !  Set your men upon him !  Do you wish to live
+another moment, draw and defend yourselves for he be the Devil of Torn, and
+there be a great price upon his head.
+
+"Oh, save me, save me !  for he has come to kill me," he ended in a pitiful
+wail.
+
+The Devil of Torn !  How that name froze the hearts of the assembled
+guests.
+
+The Devil of Torn !  Slowly the men standing there at the board of Sir
+Roger de Leybourn grasped the full purport of that awful name.
+
+Tense silence for a moment held the room in the stillness of a sepulchre,
+and then a woman shrieked, and fell prone across the table.  She had seen
+the mark of the Devil of Torn upon the dead brow of her mate.
+
+And then Roger de Leybourn spoke:
+
+"Norman of Torn, but once before have you entered within the walls of
+Leybourn, and then you did, in the service of another, a great service for
+the house of Leybourn; and you stayed the night, an honored guest.  But a
+moment since, you said that you had no quarrel with me.  Then why be you
+here ?  Speak !  Shall it be as a friend or an enemy that the master of
+Leybourn greets Norman of Torn; shall it be with outstretched hand or naked
+sword ?"
+
+"I come for this man, whom you may all see has good reason to fear me.  And
+when I go, I take part of him with me.  I be in a great hurry, so I would
+prefer to take my great and good friend, Peter of Colfax, without
+interference; but, if you wish it otherwise; we be a score strong within
+your walls, and nigh a thousand lie without.  What say you, My Lord ?"
+
+"Your grievance against Peter of Colfax must be a mighty one, that you
+search him out thus within a day's ride from the army of the King who has
+placed a price upon your head, and from another army of men who be equally
+your enemies."
+
+"I would gladly go to hell after Peter of Colfax," replied the outlaw.
+"What my grievance be matters not.  Norman of Torn acts first and explains
+afterward, if he cares to explain at all.  Come forth, Peter of Colfax, and
+for once in your life, fight like a man, that you may save your friends
+here from the fate that has found you at last after two years of patient
+waiting."
+
+Slowly, the palsied limbs of the great coward bore him tottering to the
+center of the room, where gradually a little clear space had been made; the
+men of the party forming a circle, in the center of which stood Peter of
+Colfax and Norman of Torn.
+
+"Give him a great draught of brandy," said the outlaw, "or he will sink
+down and choke in the froth of his own terror."
+
+When they had forced a goblet of the fiery liquid upon him, Peter of Colfax
+regained his lost nerve enough so that he could raise his sword arm and
+defend himself and, as the fumes circulated through him, and the primal
+instinct of self-preservation asserted itself, he put up a more and more
+creditable fight, until those who watched thought that he might indeed have
+a chance to vanquish the Outlaw of Torn.  But they did not know that Norman
+of Torn was but playing with his victim, that he might make the torture
+long, drawn out, and wreak as terrible a punishment upon Peter of Colfax,
+before he killed him, as the Baron had visited upon Bertrade de Montfort
+because she would not yield to his base desires.
+
+The guests were craning their necks to follow every detail of the
+fascinating drama that was being enacted before them.
+
+"God, what a swordsman !" muttered one.
+
+"Never was such swordplay seen since the day the first sword was drawn from
+the first scabbard !" replied Roger de Leybourn.  "Is it not marvellous !"
+
+Slowly but surely was Norman of Torn cutting Peter of Colfax to pieces;
+little by little, and with such fiendish care that, except for loss of
+blood, the man was in no way crippled; nor did the outlaw touch his
+victim's face with his gleaming sword.  That he was saving for the
+fulfillment of his design.
+
+And Peter of Colfax, cornered and fighting for his life, was no marrowless
+antagonist, even against the Devil of Torn.  Furiously he fought; in the
+extremity of his fear, rushing upon his executioner with frenzied agony.
+Great beads of cold sweat stood upon his livid brow.
+
+And then the gleaming point of Norman of Torn flashed, lightning-like, in
+his victim's face, and above the right eye of Peter of Colfax was a thin
+vertical cut from which the red blood had barely started to ooze ere
+another swift move of that master sword hand placed a fellow to parallel
+the first.
+
+Five times did the razor point touch the forehead of Peter of Colfax, until
+the watchers saw there, upon the brow of the doomed man, the seal of death,
+in letters of blood -- NT.
+
+It was the end.  Peter of Colfax, cut to ribbons yet fighting like the
+maniac he had become, was as good as dead, for the mark of the Outlaw of
+Torn was upon his brow.  Now, shrieking and gibbering through his frothy
+lips, his yellow fangs bared in a mad and horrid grin, he rushed full upon
+Norman of Torn.  There was a flash of the great sword as the outlaw swung
+it to the full of his mighty strength through an arc that passed above the
+shoulders of Peter of Colfax, and the grinning head rolled upon the floor,
+while the loathsome carcass, that had been a baron of England, sunk in a
+disheveled heap among the rushes of the great hall of the castle of
+Leybourn.
+
+A little shudder passed through the wide-eyed guests.  Some one broke into
+hysterical laughter, a woman sobbed, and then Norman of Torn, wiping his
+blade upon the rushes of the floor as he had done upon another occasion in
+that same hall, spoke quietly to the master of Leybourn.
+
+"I would borrow yon golden platter, My Lord.  It shall be returned, or a
+mightier one in its stead."
+
+Leybourn nodded his assent, and Norman of Torn turned, with a few words of
+instructions, to one of his men.
+
+The fellow gathered up the head of Peter of Colfax, and placed it upon the
+golden platter.
+
+"I thank you, Sir Roger, for your hospitality," said Norman of Torn, with a
+low bow which included the spellbound guests.  "Adieu." Thus followed by
+his men, one bearing the head of Peter of Colfax upon the platter of gold,
+Norman of Torn passed quietly from the hall and from the castle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+Both horses and men were fairly exhausted from the gruelling strain of many
+days of marching and fighting, so Norman of Torn went into camp that night;
+nor did he again take up his march until the second morning, three days
+after the battle of Lewes.
+
+He bent his direction toward the north and Leicester's castle, where he had
+reason to believe he would find a certain young woman, and though it galled
+his sore heart to think upon the humiliation that lay waiting his coming,
+he could not do less than that which he felt his honor demanded.
+
+Beside him on the march rode the fierce red giant, Shandy, and the wiry,
+gray little man of Torn, whom the outlaw called father.
+
+In no way, save the gray hair and the parchment-surfaced skin, had the old
+fellow changed in all these years.  Without bodily vices, and clinging ever
+to the open air and the exercise of the foil, he was still young in muscle
+and endurance.
+
+For five years, he had not crossed foils with Norman of Torn, but he
+constantly practiced with the best swordsmen of the wild horde, so that it
+had become a subject often discussed among the men as to which of the two,
+father or son, was the greater swordsman.
+
+Always taciturn, the old fellow rode in his usual silence.  Long since had
+Norman of Torn usurped by the force of his strong character and masterful
+ways, the position of authority in the castle of Torn.  The old man simply
+rode and fought with the others when it pleased him; and he had come on
+this trip because he felt that there was that impending for which he had
+waited over twenty years.
+
+Cold and hard, he looked with no love upon the man he still called "my
+son." If he held any sentiment toward Norman of Torn, it was one of pride
+which began and ended in the almost fiendish skill of his pupil's mighty
+sword arm.
+
+The little army had been marching for some hours when the advance guard
+halted a party bound south upon a crossroad.  There were some twenty or
+thirty men, mostly servants, and a half dozen richly garbed knights.
+
+As Norman of Torn drew rein beside them, he saw that the leader of the
+party was a very handsome man of about his own age, and evidently a person
+of distinction; a profitable prize, thought the outlaw.
+
+"Who are you," said the gentleman, in French, "that stops a prince of
+France upon the highroad as though he were an escaped criminal ?  Are you
+of the King's forces, or De Montfort's ?"
+
+"Be this Prince Philip of France ?" asked Norman of Torn.
+
+"Yes, but who be you ?"
+
+"And be you riding to meet my Lady Bertrade de Montfort ?" continued the
+outlaw, ignoring the Prince's question.
+
+"Yes, an it be any of your affair," replied Philip curtly.
+
+"It be," said the Devil of Torn, "for I be a friend of My Lady Bertrade,
+and as the way be beset with dangers from disorganized bands of roving
+soldiery, it is unsafe for Monsieur le Prince to venture on with so small
+an escort.  Therefore will the friend of Lady Bertrade de Montfort ride
+with Monsieur le Prince to his destination that Monsieur may arrive there
+safely."
+
+"It is kind of you, Sir Knight, a kindness that I will not forget.  But,
+again, who is it that shows this solicitude for Philip of France ?"
+
+"Norman of Torn, they call me," replied the outlaw.
+
+"Indeed !" cried Philip.  "The great and bloody outlaw ?" Upon his handsome
+face there was no look of fear or repugnance.
+
+Norman of Torn laughed.
+
+"Monsieur le Prince thinks, mayhap, that he will make a bad name for
+himself," he said, "if he rides in such company ?"
+
+"My Lady Bertrade and her mother think you be less devil than saint," said
+the Prince.  "They have told me of how you saved the daughter of De
+Montfort, and, ever since, I have been of a great desire to meet you, and
+to thank you.  It had been my intention to ride to Torn for that purpose so
+soon as we reached Leicester, but the Earl changed all our plans by his
+victory and only yesterday, on his orders, the Princess Eleanor, his wife,
+with the Lady Bertrade, rode to Battel, where Simon de Montfort and the
+King are to be today.  The Queen also is there with her retinue, so it be
+expected that, to show the good feeling and renewed friendship existing
+between De Montfort and his King, there will be gay scenes in the old
+fortress.  But," he added, after a pause, "dare the Outlaw of Torn ride
+within reach of the King who has placed a price upon his head ?"
+
+"The price has been there since I was eighteen," answered Norman of Torn,
+"and yet my head be where it has always been.  Can you blame me if I look
+with levity upon the King's price ?  It be not heavy enough to weigh me
+down; nor never has it held me from going where I listed in all England.  I
+am freer than the King, My Lord, for the King be a prisoner today."
+
+Together they rode toward Battel, and as they talked, Norman of Torn grew
+to like this brave and handsome gentleman.  In his heart was no rancor
+because of the coming marriage of the man to the woman he loved.
+
+If Bertrade de Montfort loved this handsome French prince, then Norman of
+Torn was his friend; for his love was a great love, above jealousy.  It not
+only held her happiness above his own, but the happiness and welfare of the
+man she loved, as well.
+
+It was dusk when they reached Battel and as Norman of Torn bid the prince
+adieu, for the horde was to make camp just without the city, he said:
+
+"May I ask My Lord to carry a message to Lady Bertrade ?  It is in
+reference to a promise I made her two years since and which I now, for the
+first time, be able to fulfill."
+
+"Certainly, my friend," replied Philip.  The outlaw, dismounting, called
+upon one of his squires for parchment, and, by the light of a torch, wrote
+a message to Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+Half an hour later, a servant in the castle of Battel handed the missive to
+the daughter of Leicester as she sat alone in her apartment.  Opening it,
+she read:
+
+To Lady Bertrade de Montfort, from her friend, Norman of Torn.
+
+Two years have passed since you took the hand of the Outlaw of Torn in
+friendship, and now he comes to sue for another favor.
+
+It is that he may have speech with you, alone, in the castle of Battel this
+night.
+
+Though the name Norman of Torn be fraught with terror to others, I know
+that you do not fear him, for you must know the loyalty and friendship
+which he bears you.
+
+My camp lies without the city's gates, and your messenger will have safe
+conduct whatever reply he bears to,
+
+Norman of Torn.
+
+Fear ?  Fear Norman of Torn ?  The girl smiled as she thought of that
+moment of terrible terror two years ago when she learned, in the castle of
+Peter of Colfax, that she was alone with, and in the power of, the Devil of
+Torn.  And then she recalled his little acts of thoughtful chivalry, nay,
+almost tenderness, on the long night ride to Leicester.
+
+What a strange contradiction of a man !  She wondered if he would come with
+lowered visor, for she was still curious to see the face that lay behind
+the cold, steel mask.  She would ask him this night to let her see his
+face, or would that be cruel ?  For, did they not say that it was from the
+very ugliness of it that he kept his helm closed to hide the repulsive
+sight from the eyes of men !
+
+As her thoughts wandered back to her brief meeting with him two years
+before, she wrote and dispatched her reply to Norman of Torn.
+
+In the great hall that night as the King's party sat at supper, Philip of
+France, addressing Henry, said:
+
+"And who thinkest thou, My Lord King, rode by my side to Battel today, that
+I might not be set upon by knaves upon the highway ?"
+
+"Some of our good friends from Kent ?" asked the King.
+
+"Nay, it was a man upon whose head Your Majesty has placed a price, Norman
+of Torn; and if all of your English highwaymen be as courteous and pleasant
+gentlemen as he, I shall ride always alone and unarmed through your realm
+that I may add to my list of pleasant acquaintances."
+
+"The Devil of Torn ?" asked Henry, incredulously.  "Some one be hoaxing
+you."
+
+"Nay, Your Majesty, I think not," replied Philip, "for he was indeed a grim
+and mighty man, and at his back rode as ferocious and awe-inspiring a pack
+as ever I beheld outside a prison; fully a thousand strong they rode.  They
+be camped not far without the city now."
+
+"My Lord," said Henry, turning to Simon de Montfort, "be it not time that
+England were rid of this devil's spawn and his hellish brood ?  Though I
+presume," he added, a sarcastic sneer upon his lip, "that it may prove
+embarrassing for My Lord Earl of Leicester to turn upon his companion in
+arms."
+
+"I owe him nothing," returned the Earl haughtily, "by his own word."
+
+"You owe him victory at Lewes," snapped the King.  "It were indeed a sad
+commentary upon the sincerity of our loyalty-professing lieges who turned
+their arms against our royal person, 'to save him from the treachery of his
+false advisers,' that they called upon a cutthroat outlaw with a price upon
+his head to aid them in their 'righteous cause'."
+
+"My Lord King," cried De Montfort, flushing with anger, "I called not upon
+this fellow, nor did I know he was within two hundred miles of Lewes until
+I saw him ride into the midst of the conflict that day.  Neither did I
+know, until I heard his battle cry, whether he would fall upon baron or
+royalist."
+
+"If that be the truth, Leicester," said the King, with a note of skepticism
+which he made studiously apparent, "hang the dog.  He be just without the
+city even now."
+
+"You be King of England, My Lord Henry.  If you say that he shall be
+hanged, hanged he shall be," replied De Montfort.
+
+"A dozen courts have already passed sentence upon him, it only remains to
+catch him, Leicester," said the King.
+
+"A party shall sally forth at dawn to do the work," replied De Montfort.
+
+"And not," thought Philip of France, "if I know it, shall the brave Outlaw
+of Torn be hanged tomorrow."
+
+In his camp without the city of Battel, Norman of Torn paced back and forth
+waiting an answer to his message.
+
+Sentries patrolled the entire circumference of the bivouac, for the outlaw
+knew full well that he had put his head within the lion's jaw when he had
+ridden thus boldly to the seat of English power.  He had no faith in the
+gratitude of De Montfort, and he knew full well what the King would urge
+when he learned that the man who had sent his soldiers naked back to
+London, who had forced his messenger to eat the King's message, and who had
+turned his victory to defeat at Lewes, was within reach of the army of De
+Montfort.
+
+Norman of Torn loved to fight, but he was no fool, and so he did not relish
+pitting his thousand upon an open plain against twenty thousand within a
+walled fortress.
+
+No, he would see Bertrade de Montfort that night and before dawn his rough
+band would be far on the road toward Torn.  The risk was great to enter the
+castle, filled as it was with his mighty enemies.  But if he died there, it
+would be in a good cause, thought he and, anyway, he had set himself to do
+this duty which he dreaded so, and do it he would were all the armies of
+the world camped within Battel.
+
+Directly he heard a low challenge from one of his sentries, who presently
+appeared escorting a lackey.
+
+"A messenger from Lady Bertrade de Montfort," said the soldier.
+
+"Bring him hither," commanded the outlaw.
+
+The lackey approached and handed Norman of Torn a dainty parchment sealed
+with scented wax wafers.
+
+"Did My Lady say you were to wait for an answer ?" asked the outlaw.
+
+"I am to wait, My Lord," replied the awestruck fellow, to whom the service
+had been much the same had his mistress ordered him to Hell to bear a
+message to the Devil.
+
+Norman of Torn turned to a flickering torch and, breaking the seals, read
+the message from the woman he loved.  It was short and simple.
+
+To Norman of Torn, from his friend always, Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+Come with Giles.  He has my instructions to lead thee secretly to where I
+be.
+
+Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+Norman of Torn turned to where one of his captains squatted upon the ground
+beside an object covered with a cloth.
+
+"Come, Flory," he said, and then, turning to the waiting Giles, "lead on."
+
+They fell in single file: first the lackey, Giles, then Norman of Torn and
+last the fellow whom he had addressed as Flory bearing the object covered
+with a cloth.  But it was not Flory who brought up the rear.  Flory lay
+dead in the shadow of a great oak within the camp; a thin wound below his
+left shoulder blade marked the spot where a keen dagger had found its way
+to his heart, and in his place walked the little grim, gray, old man,
+bearing the object covered with a cloth.  But none might know the
+difference, for the little man wore the armor of Flory, and his visor was
+drawn.
+
+And so they came to a small gate which let into the castle wall where the
+shadow of a great tower made the blackness of a black night doubly black.
+Through many dim corridors, the lackey led them, and up winding stairways
+until presently he stopped before a low door.
+
+"Here," he said, "My Lord," and turning left them.
+
+Norman of Torn touched the panel with the mailed knuckles of his right
+hand, and a low voice from within whispered, "Enter."
+
+Silently, he strode into the apartment, a small antechamber off a large
+hall.  At one end was an open hearth upon which logs were burning brightly,
+while a single lamp aided in diffusing a soft glow about the austere
+chamber.  In the center of the room was a table, and at the sides several
+benches.
+
+Before the fire stood Bertrade de Montfort, and she was alone.
+
+"Place your burden upon this table, Flory," said Norman of Torn.  And when
+it had been done: "You may go.  Return to camp."
+
+He did not address Bertrade de Montfort until the door had closed behind
+the little grim, gray man who wore the armor of the dead Flory and then
+Norman of Torn advanced to the table and stood with his left hand
+ungauntleted, resting upon the table's edge.
+
+"My Lady Bertrade," he said at last, "I have come to fulfill a promise."
+
+He spoke in French, and she started slightly at his voice.  Before, Norman
+of Torn had always spoken in English.  Where had she heard that voice !
+There were tones in it that haunted her.
+
+"What promise did Norman of Torn e'er make to Bertrade de Montfort ?" she
+asked.  "I do not understand you, my friend."
+
+"Look," he said.  And as she approached the table he withdrew the cloth
+which covered the object that the man had placed there.
+
+The girl started back with a little cry of terror, for there upon a golden
+platter was a man's head; horrid with the grin of death baring yellow
+fangs.
+
+"Dost recognize the thing ?" asked the outlaw.  And then she did; but still
+she could not comprehend.  At last, slowly, there came back to her the
+idle, jesting promise of Roger de Conde to fetch the head of her enemy to
+the feet of his princess, upon a golden dish.
+
+But what had the Outlaw of Torn to do with that !  It was all a sore puzzle
+to her, and then she saw the bared left hand of the grim, visored figure of
+the Devil of Torn, where it rested upon the table beside the grisly head of
+Peter of Colfax; and upon the third finger was the great ring she had
+tossed to Roger de Conde on that day, two years before.
+
+What strange freak was her brain playing her !  It could not be, no it was
+impossible; then her glance fell again upon the head grinning there upon
+the platter of gold, and upon the forehead of it she saw, in letters of
+dried blood, that awful symbol of sudden death - NT !
+
+Slowly her eyes returned to the ring upon the outlaw's hand, and then up to
+his visored helm.  A step she took toward him, one hand upon her breast,
+the other stretched pointing toward his face, and she swayed slightly as
+might one who has just arisen from a great illness.
+
+"Your visor," she whispered, "raise your visor." And then, as though to
+herself: "It cannot be; it cannot be."
+
+Norman of Torn, though it tore the heart from him, did as she bid, and
+there before her she saw the brave strong face of Roger de Conde.
+
+"Mon Dieu !" she cried, "Tell me it is but a cruel joke."
+
+"It be the cruel truth, My Lady Bertrade," said Norman of Torn sadly.  And,
+then, as she turned away from him, burying her face in her raised arms, he
+came to her side, and, laying his hand upon her shoulder, said sadly:
+
+"And now you see, My Lady, why I did not follow you to France.  My heart
+went there with you, but I knew that naught but sorrow and humiliation
+could come to one whom the Devil of Torn loved, if that love was returned;
+and so I waited until you might forget the words you had spoken to Roger de
+Conde before I came to fulfill the promise that you should know him in his
+true colors.
+
+"It is because I love you, Bertrade, that I have come this night.  God
+knows that it be no pleasant thing to see the loathing in your very
+attitude, and to read the hate and revulsion that surges through your
+heart, or to guess the hard, cold thoughts which fill your mind against me
+because I allowed you to speak the words you once spoke, and to the Devil
+of Torn.
+
+"I make no excuse for my weakness.  I ask no forgiveness for what I know
+you never can forgive.  That, when you think of me, it will always be with
+loathing and contempt is the best that I can hope.
+
+"I only know that I love you, Bertrade; I only know that I love you, and
+with a love that surpasseth even my own understanding.
+
+"Here is the ring that you gave in token of friendship.  Take it.  The hand
+that wore it has done no wrong by the light that has been given it as
+guide.
+
+"The blood that has pulsed through the finger that it circled came from a
+heart that beat for Bertrade de Montfort; a heart that shall continue to
+beat for her alone until a merciful providence sees fit to gather in a
+wasted and useless life.
+
+"Farewell, Bertrade." Kneeling he raised the hem of her garment to his
+lips.
+
+A thousand conflicting emotions surged through the heart of this proud
+daughter of the new conqueror of England.  The anger of an outraged
+confidence, gratitude for the chivalry which twice had saved her honor,
+hatred for the murderer of a hundred friends and kinsmen, respect and honor
+for the marvellous courage of the man, loathing and contempt for the base
+born, the memory of that exalted moment when those handsome lips had clung
+to hers, pride in the fearlessness of a champion who dared come alone among
+twenty thousand enemies for the sake of a promise made her; but stronger
+than all the rest, two stood out before her mind's eye like living
+things -- the degradation of his low birth, and the memory of the great
+love she had cherished all these long and dreary months.
+
+And these two fought out their battle in the girl's breast.  In those few
+brief moments of bewilderment and indecision, it seemed to Bertrade de
+Montfort that ten years passed above her head, and when she reached her
+final resolution she was no longer a young girl but a grown woman who, with
+the weight of a mature deliberation, had chosen the path which she would
+travel to the end -- to the final goal, however sweet or however bitter.
+
+Slowly she turned toward him who knelt with bowed head at her feet, and,
+taking the hand that held the ring outstretched toward her, raised him to
+his feet.  In silence she replaced the golden band upon his finger, and
+then she lifted her eyes to his.
+
+"Keep the ring, Norman of Torn," she said.  "The friendship of Bertrade de
+Montfort is not lightly given nor lightly taken away," she hesitated, "nor
+is her love."
+
+"What do you mean ?" he whispered.  For in her eyes was that wondrous light
+he had seen there on that other day in the far castle of Leicester.
+
+"I mean," she answered, "that, Roger de Conde or Norman of Torn, gentleman
+or highwayman, it be all the same to Bertrade de Montfort -- it be thee I
+love; thee !"
+
+Had she reviled him, spat upon him, he would not have been surprised, for
+he had expected the worst; but that she should love him !  Oh God, had his
+overwrought nerves turned his poor head ?  Was he dreaming this thing, only
+to awaken to the cold and awful truth !
+
+But these warm arms about his neck, the sweet perfume of the breath that
+fanned his cheek; these were no dream !
+
+"Think thee what thou art saying, Bertrade ?" he cried.  "Dost forget that
+I be a low-born knave, knowing not my own mother and questioning even the
+identity of my father ?  Could a De Montfort face the world with such a man
+for husband ?"
+
+"I know what I say, perfectly," she answered.  "Were thou born out of
+wedlock, the son of a hostler and a scullery maid, still would I love thee,
+and honor thee, and cleave to thee.  Where thou be, Norman of Torn, there
+shall be happiness for me.  Thy friends shall be my friends; thy joys shall
+be my joys; thy sorrows, my sorrows; and thy enemies, even mine own father,
+shall be my enemies.
+
+"Why it is, my Norman, I know not.  Only do I know that I didst often
+question my own self if in truth I did really love Roger de Conde, but
+thee -- oh Norman, why is it that there be no shred of doubt now, that this
+heart, this soul, this body be all and always for the Outlaw of Torn ?"
+
+"I do not know," he said simply and gravely.  "So wonderful a thing be
+beyond my poor brain; but I think my heart knows, for in very joy, it is
+sending the hot blood racing and surging through my being till I were like
+to be consumed for the very heat of my happiness."
+
+"Sh !" she whispered, suddenly, "methinks I hear footsteps.  They must not
+find thee here, Norman of Torn, for the King has only this night wrung a
+promise from my father to take thee in the morning and hang thee.  What
+shall we do, Norman ?  Where shall we meet again ?"
+
+"We shall not be separated, Bertrade; only so long as it may take thee to
+gather a few trinkets, and fetch thy riding cloak.  Thou ridest north
+tonight with Norman of Torn, and by the third day, Father Claude shall make
+us one."
+
+"I am glad thee wish it," she replied.  "I feared that, for some reason,
+thee might not think it best for me to go with thee now.  Wait here, I will
+be gone but a moment.  If the footsteps I hear approach this door," and she
+indicated the door by which he had entered the little room, "thou canst
+step through this other doorway into the adjoining apartment, and conceal
+thyself there until the danger passes."
+
+Norman of Torn made a wry face, for he had no stomach for hiding himself
+away from danger.
+
+"For my sake," she pleaded.  So he promised to do as she bid, and she ran
+swiftly from the room to fetch her belongings.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+When the little, grim, gray man had set the object covered with a cloth
+upon the table in the center of the room and left the apartment, he did not
+return to camp as Norman of Torn had ordered.
+
+Instead, he halted immediately without the little door, which he left a
+trifle ajar, and there he waited, listening to all that passed between
+Bertrade de Montfort and Norman of Torn.
+
+    As he heard the proud daughter of Simon de Montfort declare her love
+for the Devil of Torn, a cruel smile curled his lip.
+
+"It will be better than I had hoped," he muttered, and easier.  'S blood !
+How much easier now that Leicester, too, may have his whole proud heart in
+the hanging of Norman of Torn.  Ah, what a sublime revenge !  I have waited
+long, thou cur of a King, to return the blow thou struck that day, but the
+return shall be an hundred-fold increased by long accumulated interest."
+
+Quickly, the wiry figure hastened through the passageways and corridors,
+until he came to the great hall where sat De Montfort and the King, with
+Philip of France and many others, gentlemen and nobles.
+
+Before the guard at the door could halt him, he had broken into the room
+and, addressing the King, cried:
+
+"Wouldst take the Devil of Torn, My Lord King ?  He be now alone where a
+few men may seize him."
+
+"What now !  What now !" ejaculated Henry.  "What madman be this ?"
+
+"I be no madman, Your Majesty.  Never did brain work more clearly or to
+more certain ends," replied the man.
+
+"It may doubtless be some ruse of the cut-throat himself," cried De
+Montfort.
+
+"Where be the knave ?" asked Henry.
+
+"He stands now within this palace and in his arms be Bertrade, daughter of
+My Lord Earl of Leicester.  Even now she did but tell him that she loved
+him."
+
+"Hold," cried De Montfort.  "Hold fast thy foul tongue.  What meanest thou
+by uttering such lies, and to my very face ?"
+
+"They be no lies, Simon de Montfort.  An I tell thee that Roger de Conde
+and Norman of Torn be one and the same, thou wilt know that I speak no
+lie."
+
+De Montfort paled.
+
+"Where be the craven wretch ?" he demanded.
+
+"Come," said the little, old man.  And turning, he led from the hall,
+closely followed by De Montfort, the King, Prince Philip and the others.
+
+"Thou hadst better bring twenty fighting men -- thou'lt need them all to
+take Norman of Torn," he advised De Montfort.  And so as they passed the
+guard room, the party was increased by twenty men-at-arms.
+
+Scarcely had Bertrade de Montfort left him ere Norman of Torn heard the
+tramping of many feet.  They seemed approaching up the dim corridor that
+led to the little door of the apartment where he stood.
+
+Quickly, he moved to the opposite door and, standing with his hand upon the
+latch, waited.  Yes, they were coming that way, many of them and quickly
+and, as he heard them pause without, he drew aside the arras and pushed
+open the door behind him; backing into the other apartment just as Simon de
+Montfort, Earl of Leicester, burst into the room from the opposite side.
+
+At the same instant, a scream rang out behind Norman of Torn, and, turning,
+he faced a brightly lighted room in which sat Eleanor, Queen of England and
+another Eleanor, wife of Simon de Montfort, with their ladies.
+
+There was no hiding now, and no escape; for run he would not, even had
+there been where to run.  Slowly, he backed away from the door toward a
+corner where, with his back against a wall and a table at his right, he
+might die as he had lived, fighting; for Norman of Torn knew that he could
+hope for no quarter from the men who had him cornered there like a great
+bear in a trap.
+
+With an army at their call, it were an easy thing to take a lone man, even
+though that man were the Devil of Torn.
+
+The King and De Montfort had now crossed the smaller apartment and were
+within the room where the outlaw stood at bay.
+
+At the far side, the group of royal and noble women stood huddled together,
+while behind De Montfort and the King pushed twenty gentlemen and as many
+men-at-arms.
+
+"What dost thou here, Norman of Torn ?" cried De Montfort, angrily.  "Where
+be my daughter, Bertrade ?"
+
+"I be here, My Lord Earl, to attend to mine own affairs," replied Norman of
+Torn, "which be the affair of no other man.  As to your daughter: I know
+nothing of her whereabouts.  What should she have to do with the Devil of
+Torn, My Lord ?"
+
+De Montfort turned toward the little gray man.
+
+"He lies," shouted he.  "Her kisses be yet wet upon his lips."
+
+Norman of Torn looked at the speaker and, beneath the visor that was now
+partly raised, he saw the features of the man whom, for twenty years, he
+had called father.
+
+He had never expected love from this hard old man, but treachery and harm
+from him ?  No, he could not believe it.  One of them must have gone mad.
+But why Flory's armor and where was the faithful Flory ?
+
+"Father !" he ejaculated, "leadest thou the hated English King against
+thine own son ?"
+
+"Thou be no son of mine, Norman of Torn," retorted the old man.  "Thy days
+of usefulness to me be past.  Tonight thou serve me best swinging from a
+wooden gibbet.  Take him, My Lord Earl; they say there be a good strong
+gibbet in the courtyard below."
+
+"Wilt surrender, Norman of Torn ?" cried De Montfort.
+
+"Yes," was the reply, "when this floor be ankle deep in English blood and
+my heart has ceased to beat, then will I surrender."
+
+"Come, come," cried the King.  "Let your men take the dog, De Montfort !"
+
+"Have at him, then," ordered the Earl, turning toward the waiting
+men-at-arms, none of whom seemed overly anxious to advance upon the doomed
+outlaw.
+
+But an officer of the guard set them the example, and so they pushed
+forward in a body toward Norman of Torn; twenty blades bared against one.
+
+There was no play now for the Outlaw of Torn.  It was grim battle and his
+only hope that he might take a fearful toll of his enemies before he
+himself went down.
+
+And so he fought as he never fought before, to kill as many and as quickly
+as he might.  And to those who watched, it was as though the young officer
+of the Guard had not come within reach of that terrible blade ere he lay
+dead upon the floor, and then the point of death passed into the lungs of
+one of the men-at-arms, scarcely pausing ere it pierced the heart of a
+third.
+
+The soldiers fell back momentarily, awed by the frightful havoc of that
+mighty arm.  Before De Montfort could urge them on to renew the attack, a
+girlish figure.  clothed in a long riding cloak.  burst through the little
+knot of men as they stood facing their lone antagonist.
+
+With a low cry of mingled rage and indignation, Bertrade de Montfort threw
+herself before the Devil of Torn, and facing the astonished company of
+king, prince, nobles and soldiers, drew herself to her full height, and
+with all the pride of race and blood that was her right of heritage from a
+French king on her father's side and an English king on her mother's, she
+flashed her defiance and contempt in the single word:
+
+"Cowards !"
+
+"What means this, girl ?" demanded De Montfort, "Art gone stark mad ?  Know
+thou that this fellow be the Outlaw of Torn ?"
+
+"If I had not before known it, My Lord," she replied haughtily, "it would
+be plain to me now as I see forty cowards hesitating to attack a lone man.
+What other man in all England could stand thus against forty ?  A lion at
+bay with forty jackals yelping at his feet."
+
+"Enough, girl," cried the King, "what be this knave to thee ?"
+
+"He loves me, Your Majesty," she replied proudly, "and I, him."
+
+"Thou lov'st this low-born cut-throat, Bertrade," cried Henry.  "Thou, a De
+Montfort, the daughter of my sister; who have seen this murderer's accursed
+mark upon the foreheads of thy kin; thou have seen him flaunt his defiance
+in the King's, thy uncle's, face, and bend his whole life to preying upon
+thy people; thou lov'st this monster ?"
+
+"I love him, My Lord King."
+
+"Thou lov'st him, Bertrade ?" asked Philip of France in a low tone,
+pressing nearer to the girl.
+
+"Yes, Philip," she said, a little note of sadness and finality in her
+voice; but her eyes met his squarely and bravely.
+
+Instantly, the sword of the young Prince leaped from its scabbard, and
+facing De Montfort and the others, he backed to the side of Norman of Torn.
+
+"That she loves him be enough for me to know, my gentlemen," he said.  "Who
+takes the man Bertrade de Montfort loves must take Philip of France as
+well."
+
+Norman of Torn laid his left hand upon the other's shoulder.
+
+"No, thou must not do this thing, my friend," he said.  "It be my fight and
+I will fight it alone.  Go, I beg of thee, and take her with thee, out of
+harm's way."
+
+As they argued, Simon de Montfort and the King had spoken together, and, at
+a word from the former, the soldiers rushed suddenly to the attack again.
+It was a cowardly strategem, for they knew that the two could not fight
+with the girl between them and their adversaries.  And thus, by weight of
+numbers, they took Bertrade de Montfort and the Prince away from Norman of
+Torn without a blow being struck, and then the little, grim, gray, old man
+stepped forward.
+
+"There be but one sword in all England, nay in all the world that can,
+alone, take Norman of Torn," he said, addressing the King, "and that sword
+be mine.  Keep thy cattle back, out of my way." And, without waiting for a
+reply, the grim, gray man sprang in to engage him whom for twenty years he
+had called son.
+
+Norman of Torn came out of his corner to meet his new-found enemy, and
+there, in the apartment of the Queen of England in the castle of Battel,
+was fought such a duel as no man there had ever seen before, nor is it
+credible that its like was ever fought before or since.
+
+The world's two greatest swordsmen: teacher and pupil -- the one with the
+strength of a young bull, the other with the cunning of an old gray fox,
+and both with a lifetime of training behind them, and the lust of blood and
+hate before them -- thrust and parried and cut until those that gazed
+awestricken upon the marvellous swordplay scarcely breathed in the tensity
+of their wonder.
+
+Back and forth about the room they moved, while those who had come to kill
+pressed back to make room for the contestants.  Now was the young man
+forcing his older foeman more and more upon the defensive.  Slowly, but as
+sure as death, he was winning ever nearer and nearer to victory.  The old
+man saw it too.  He had devoted years of his life to training that mighty
+sword arm that it might deal out death to others, and now -- ah !  The grim
+justice of the retribution he, at last, was to fall before its diabolical
+cunning.
+
+He could not win in fair fight against Norman of Torn; that the wily
+Frenchman saw; but now that death was so close upon him that he felt its
+cold breath condensing on his brow, he had no stomach to die, and so he
+cast about for any means whereby he might escape the result of his rash
+venture.
+
+Presently he saw his opportunity.  Norman of Torn stood beside the body of
+one of his earlier antagonists.  Slowly the old man worked around until the
+body lay directly behind the outlaw, and then with a final rally and one
+great last burst of supreme swordsmanship, he rushed Norman of Torn back
+for a bare step -- it was enough.  The outlaw's foot struck the prostrate
+corpse; he staggered, and for one brief instant his sword arm rose, ever so
+little, as he strove to retain his equilibrium; but that little was
+enough.  It was what the gray old snake had expected, and he was ready.
+Like lightning, his sword shot through the opening, and, for the first time
+in his life of continual combat and death, Norman of Torn felt cold steel
+tear his flesh.  But ere he fell, his sword responded to the last fierce
+command of that iron will, and as his body sank limply to the floor,
+rolling with outstretched arms, upon its back, the little, grim, gray man
+went down also, clutching frantically at a gleaming blade buried in his
+chest.
+
+For an instant, the watchers stood as though petrified, and then Bertrade
+de Montfort, tearing herself from the restraining hand of her father,
+rushed to the side of the lifeless body of the man she loved.  Kneeling
+there beside him she called his name aloud, as she unlaced his helm.
+Tearing the steel headgear from him, she caressed his face, kissing the
+white forehead and the still lips.
+
+"Oh God !  Oh God !" she murmured.  "Why hast thou taken him ?  Outlaw
+though he was, in his little finger was more of honor, of chivalry, of true
+manhood than courses through the veins of all the nobles of England.
+
+"I do not wonder that he preyed upon you," she cried, turning upon the
+knights behind her.  "His life was clean, thine be rotten; he was loyal to
+his friends and to the downtrodden, ye be traitors at heart, all; and ever
+be ye trampling upon those who be down that they may sink deeper into the
+mud.  Mon Dieu !  How I hate you," she finished.  And as she spoke the
+words, Bertrade de Montfort looked straight into the eyes of her father.
+
+The old Earl turned his head, for at heart he was a brave, broad, kindly
+man, and he regretted what he had done in the haste and heat of anger.
+
+"Come, child," said the King, "thou art distraught; thou sayest what thou
+mean not.  The world is better that this man be dead.  He was an enemy of
+organized society, he preyed ever upon his fellows.  Life in England will
+be safer after this day.  Do not weep over the clay of a nameless
+adventurer who knew not his own father."
+
+Someone had lifted the little, grim, gray, old man to a sitting posture.
+He was not dead.  Occasionally he coughed, and when he did, his frame was
+racked with suffering, and blood flowed from his mouth and nostrils.
+
+At last they saw that he was trying to speak.  Weakly he motioned toward
+the King.  Henry came toward him.
+
+"Thou hast won thy sovereign's gratitude, my man," said the King, kindly.
+"What be thy name ?"
+
+The old fellow tried to speak, but the effort brought on another paroxysm
+of coughing.  At last he managed to whisper.
+
+"Look -- at -- me.  Dost thou -- not -- remember me ?  The --- foils --
+the -- blow -- twenty-long-years.  Thou -- spat -- upon --- me."
+
+Henry knelt and peered into the dying face.
+
+"De Vac !" he exclaimed.
+
+The old man nodded.  Then he pointed to where lay Norman of Torn.
+
+"Outlaw -- highwayman -- scourge -- of -- England.  Look --- upon -- his --
+face.  Open -- his tunic -- left -- breast."
+
+He stopped from very weakness, and then in another moment, with a final
+effort: "De -- Vac's -- revenge.  God -- damn -- the --- English," and
+slipped forward upon the rushes, dead.
+
+The King had heard, and De Montfort and the Queen.  They stood looking into
+each other's eyes with a strange fixity, for what seemed an eternity,
+before any dared to move; and then, as though they feared what they should
+see, they bent over the form of the Outlaw of Torn for the first time.
+
+The Queen gave a little cry as she saw the still, quiet face turned up to
+hers.
+
+"Edward !" she whispered.
+
+"Not Edward, Madame," said De Montfort, "but -- "
+
+The King knelt beside the still form, across the breast of which lay the
+unconscious body of Bertrade de Montfort.  Gently, he lifted her to the
+waiting arms of Philip of France, and then the King, with his own hands,
+tore off the shirt of mail, and with trembling fingers ripped wide the
+tunic where it covered the left breast of the Devil of Torn.
+
+"Oh God !" he cried, and buried his head in his arms.
+
+The Queen had seen also, and with a little moan she sank beside the body of
+her second born, crying out:
+
+"Oh Richard, my boy, my boy !" And as she bent still lower to kiss the lily
+mark upon the left breast of the son she had not seen to know for over
+twenty years, she paused, and with frantic haste she pressed her ear to his
+breast.
+
+"He lives !" she almost shrieked.  "Quick, Henry, our son lives !"
+
+Bertrade de Montfort had regained consciousness almost before Philip of
+France had raised her from the floor, and she stood now, leaning on his
+arm, watching with wide, questioning eyes the strange scene being enacted
+at her feet.
+
+Slowly, the lids of Norman of Torn lifted with returning consciousness.
+Before him, on her knees in the blood spattered rushes of the floor, knelt
+Eleanor, Queen of England, alternately chafing and kissing his hands.
+
+A sore wound indeed to have brought on such a wild delirium, thought the
+Outlaw of Torn.
+
+He felt his body, in a half sitting, half reclining position, resting
+against one who knelt behind him, and as he lifted his head to see whom it
+might be supporting him, he looked into the eyes of the King, upon whose
+breast his head rested.
+
+Strange vagaries of a disordered brain !  Yes it must have been a very
+terrible wound that the little old man of Torn had given him; but why could
+he not dream that Bertrade de Montfort held him ?  And then his eyes
+wandered about among the throng of ladies, nobles and soldiers standing
+uncovered and with bowed heads about him.  Presently he found her.
+
+"Bertrade !" he whispered.
+
+The girl came and knelt beside him, opposite the Queen.
+
+"Bertrade, tell me thou art real; that thou at least be no dream."
+
+"I be very real, dear heart," she answered, "and these others be real,
+also.  When thou art stronger, thou shalt understand the strange thing that
+has happened.  These who wert thine enemies, Norman of Torn, be thy best
+friends now -- that thou should know, so that thou may rest in peace until
+thou be better."
+
+He groped for her hand, and, finding it, closed his eyes with a faint sigh.
+
+They bore him to a cot in an apartment next the Queen's, and all that night
+the mother and the promised wife of the Outlaw of Torn sat bathing his
+fevered forehead.  The King's chirurgeon was there also, while the King and
+De Montfort paced the corridor without.
+
+And it is ever thus; whether in hovel or palace; in the days of Moses, or
+in the days that be ours; the lamb that has been lost and is found again be
+always the best beloved.
+
+Toward morning, Norman of Torn fell into a quiet and natural sleep; the
+fever and delirium had succumbed before his perfect health and iron
+constitution.  The chirurgeon turned to the Queen and Bertrade de Montfort.
+
+"You had best retire, ladies," he said, "and rest.  The Prince will live."
+
+Late that afternoon he awoke, and no amount of persuasion or commands on
+the part of the King's chirurgeon could restrain him from arising.
+
+"I beseech thee to lie quiet, My Lord Prince," urged the chirurgeon.
+
+"Why call thou me prince ?" asked Norman of Torn.
+
+"There be one without whose right it be to explain that to thee," replied
+the chirurgeon, "and when thou be clothed, if rise thou wilt, thou mayst
+see her, My Lord."
+
+The chirurgeon aided him to dress and, opening the door, he spoke to a
+sentry who stood just without.  The sentry transmitted the message to a
+young squire who was waiting there, and presently the door was thrown open
+again from without, and a voice announced:
+
+"Her Majesty, the Queen !"
+
+Norman of Torn looked up in unfeigned surprise, and then there came back to
+him the scene in the Queen's apartment the night before.  It was all a sore
+perplexity to him; he could not fathom it, nor did he attempt to.
+
+And now, as in a dream, he saw the Queen of England coming toward him
+across the small room, her arms outstretched; her beautiful face radiant
+with happiness and love.
+
+"Richard, my son !" exclaimed Eleanor, coming to him and taking his face in
+her hands and kissing him.
+
+"Madame !" exclaimed the surprised man.  "Be all the world gone crazy ?"
+
+And then she told him the strange story of the little lost prince of
+England.
+
+When she had finished, he knelt at her feet, taking her hand in his and
+raising it to his lips.
+
+"I did not know, Madame," he said, "or never would my sword have been bared
+in other service than thine.  If thou canst forgive me, Madame, never can I
+forgive myself."
+
+"Take it not so hard, my son," said Eleanor of England.  "It be no fault of
+thine, and there be nothing to forgive; only happiness and rejoicing should
+we feel, now that thou be found again."
+
+"Forgiveness !" said a man's voice behind them.  "Forsooth, it be we that
+should ask forgiveness; hunting down our own son with swords and halters.
+
+"Any but a fool might have known that it was no base-born knave who sent
+the King's army back, naked, to the King, and rammed the King's message
+down his messenger's throat.
+
+"By all the saints, Richard, thou be every inch a King's son, an' though we
+made sour faces at the time, we be all the prouder of thee now."
+
+The Queen and the outlaw had turned at the first words to see the King
+standing behind them, and now Norman of Torn rose, half smiling, and
+greeted his father.
+
+"They be sorry jokes, Sire," he said.  "Methinks it had been better had
+Richard remained lost.  It will do the honor of the Plantagenets but little
+good to acknowledge the Outlaw of Torn as a prince of the blood."
+
+But they would not have it so, and it remained for a later King of England
+to wipe the great name from the pages of history -- perhaps a jealous king.
+
+Presently the King and Queen, adding their pleas to those of the
+chirurgeon, prevailed upon him to lie down once more, and when he had done
+so they left him, that he might sleep again; but no sooner had the door
+closed behind them than he arose and left the apartment by another exit.
+
+It was by chance that, in a deep set window, he found her for whom he was
+searching.  She sat looking wistfully into space, an expression half sad
+upon her beautiful face.  She did not see him as he approached, and he
+stood there for several moments watching her dear profile, and the rising
+and falling of her bosom over that true and loyal heart that had beaten so
+proudly against all the power of a mighty throne for the despised Outlaw of
+Torn.
+
+He did not speak, but presently that strange, subtle sixth sense which
+warns us that we are not alone, though our eyes see not nor our ears hear,
+caused her to turn.
+
+With a little cry she arose, and then, curtsying low after the manner of
+the court, said:
+
+"What would My Lord Richard, Prince of England, of his poor subject ?" And
+then, more gravely, "My Lord, I have been raised at court, and I understand
+that a prince does not wed rashly, and so let us forget what passed between
+Bertrade de Montfort and Norman of Torn."
+
+"Prince Richard of England will in no wise disturb royal precedents," he
+replied, "for he will wed not rashly, but most wisely, since he will wed
+none but Bertrade de Montfort." And he who had been the Outlaw of Torn took
+the fair young girl in his arms, adding: "If she still loves me, now that I
+be a prince ?"
+
+She put her arms about his neck, and drew his cheek down close to hers.
+
+"It was not the outlaw that I loved, Richard, nor be it the prince I love
+now; it be all the same to me, prince or highwayman -- it be thee I love,
+dear heart -- just thee."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Outlaw of Torn by Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+
+I have made the following changes to the text:
+PAGE  LINE  ORIGINAL     CHANGED TO
+  17    17  merks   marks
+  554   ertswhile    erstwhile
+  591   so so   do so
+  90    26  beats   beasts
+  934   presntly     presently
+ 124    20  rescurer     rescuer
+ 171    27  walls." walls.
+ 1843   gnetlemen    gentlemen
+ 185    20  fored,  formed,
+ 1866   to forces    the forces
+ 195    19  those father whose father
+ 2172   precipitably precipitately
+ 2175   litle   little
+ 221    30  Monfort Montfort
+ 230    30  Montforth    Montfort
+ 245    15  muderer's    murderer's
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The only changes that have been made to this text by Publisher's Choice
+Books and its General Manager/Editor have been the removal of all
+word-breaking hyphenation, and the occasional addition of a comma to
+separate certain phrases.  These changes were effected merely to increase
+the Reader's reading ease and enjoyment of the text.
+
+The following spelling changes were effected within the text for reasons of
+clarity:
+
+"chid"  to  "chide"
+"sword play" to "swordplay"
+"subtile" to "subtle"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End
+