The Outlaw of Torn

tle-axe, but each day also, a period was allotted to the sword, until, by the time the youth had turned

ns until he knew every bypath within a radius of fifty miles of Torn

, determined to enter and have speech with the inmates, for by this time the natural desire for companionship was commencing t

r pushed in, without the usual formality of knocking, the old

er for piety nor age that they burst in upon the seclus

od, and who says 'by your leave' to no man. But I have come in peace because I wish to talk to anot

his commands," laughed the priest. "Raise your visor, My Lord, I would

round jovial face. There was no bite in the tones of his goo

," cried the good fath

boy, "but a good child to own as a fri

like your face and your manner, though there be much to wish for in your manners. Sit down and eat with me, a

it was heavy and uncomfortable, and together the two sat

so, Norman of Torn visited his friend, Father Claude. It was he who taught the boy to read and w

ll public documents were inscribed either in French or Latin, although about this time the f

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

ter that no arguments he could bring to bear could ever overcome the bald fact that to this very belief of

mmediately pushed open to admit as disreputable a band of ruffians as ever polluted the sight of ma

d 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

s here indeed. A swine of God fattened upon the sweat of such poor, honest devils

th, "for The Black Wolf leaves no evidence behind him to tie

s, 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

this clever ruse of the old priest, and, assu

n if he thinks he runs out the back door like an ol

he addressed

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 k

e 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

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 th

ll as in swordsmanship, and ere they had made fifty paces, both had thr

hut, and we shall see what he

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

ad when he saw his four comrades coming, una

lory wounded, James Flory, One Eye Kanty an

nd leg, who and what be ye?" he

"Me ye shall serve in fairer work than ye have selected fo

revolving in a nebulous way within the innermost recesses of his subconsciousness since his vanquishing of the three knights had brough

farther and fare worse, mates, in search of a chief," spoke Red Shandy, eyeing his fellows, "fo

s?" said he whom they

or and the weak, to lay down your lives in defence of woman, a

strongly that they would have subscribed to anything, even daily mass, and a

cried. "We be y

l 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 r

and "Here's to the chief of the Torns" signif

rd and this token," pursued Norman of Torn c

ew years to number a thousand men, and which defied a king's arm

he gentry who happened to be caught in the open by the outlaws, that filled the coffers of Norman of Tor

cts, he grimly evidenced by marking with a dagger's point upon the

ged the grim Castle of Torn, and again dammed the little st

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, h

, 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 f

ost equally upon royalist and insurgent. Personally, he had decided to join neither part

d cut-throats on the day of his first meeting with them, the old man of Torn

th winded the horn which hung at his sid

enged the old man entering grim

of noble knights and men-at-arms and squires and lackeys and sumpter

d the old man as Norman of Tor

her; and together we shall fare forth upon the highways and into the byways of England, to

have it; together we shall ride out, and wher

in the land, until even the King shall tremble when he hears it, and s

the blood of Saxon and Norman

e of the castle after this outbreak, Shandy, tu

le father loveth the English. There sh

soon who be thy master, take that, as a reminder," and he struck the red giant full

toward Norman of Torn, the latter made no move to draw; he but stood with folded arms, eyeing Sha

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 you

rmit knelt before their young lord and kissed his hand. From the Great Court beyond, a litt

lf. God speed the day of his coronation, when, before the very eyes of the Plantagenet hound, a black cap