From now on, the old man devoted himself to the training of the boy in thehandling of his lance and battle-axe, but each day also, a period wasallotted 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 themarvelous skill of his pupil.

During these days, the boy rode Sir Mortimer abroad in many directionsuntil 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 hamletnot far from Torn and, with the curiosity of boyhood, determined to enterand have speech with the inmates, for by this time the natural desire forcompanionship was commencing to assert itself. In all his life, heremembered only the company of the old man, who never spoke except whennecessity 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 anexpression of annoyance and disapproval.

"What now," he said, "have the King's men respect neither for piety nor agethat 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, whohas neither a king nor a god, and who says 'by your leave' to no man. ButI have come in peace because I wish to talk to another than my father.Therefore you may talk to me, priest," he concluded with haughtyperemptoriness.

"By the nose of John, but it must be a king has deigned to honor me withhis commands," laughed the priest. "Raise your visor, My Lord, I wouldfain look upon the countenance from which issue the commands of royalty."

The priest was a large man with beaming, kindly eyes, and a round jovialface. 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 afriend, 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, thoughthere be much to wish for in your manners. Sit down and eat with me, and Iwill talk to your heart's content, for be there one other thing I more lovethan eating, it is talking."

With the priest's aid, the boy laid aside his armor, for it was heavy anduncomfortable, and together the two sat down to the meal that was alreadypartially on the board.

Thus began a friendship which lasted during the lifetime of the goodpriest. Whenever he could do so, Norman of Torn visited his friend, FatherClaude. It was he who taught the boy to read and write in French, Englishand 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 classesof society, and all public documents were inscribed either in French orLatin, although about this time the first proclamation written in theEnglish tongue was issued by an English king to his subjects.

Father Claude taught the boy to respect the rights of others, to espousethe cause of the poor and weak, to revere God and to believe that theprincipal reason for man's existence was to protect woman. All of virtueand chivalry and true manhood which his old guardian had neglected toinculcate in the boy's mind, the good priest planted there, but he couldnot eradicate his deep-seated hatred for the English or his belief that thereal 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 hisnew friend rather decided the latter that no arguments he could bring tobear could ever overcome the bald fact that to this very belief of theboy's, and his ability to back it up with acts, the good father owed agreat deal, possibly his life.

As they were seated in the priest's hut one afternoon, a rough knock fellupon the door which was immediately pushed open to admit as disreputable aband of ruffians as ever polluted the sight of man. Six of them therewere, clothed in dirty leather, and wearing swords and daggers at theirsides.

The leader was a mighty fellow with a great shock of coarse black hair anda red, bloated face almost concealed by a huge matted black beard. Behindhim pushed another giant with red hair and a bristling mustache; while thethird was marked by a terrible scar across his left cheek and forehead andfrom a blow which had evidently put out his left eye, for that socket wasempty, and the sunken eyelid but partly covered the inflamed red of thehollow where his eye had been.

"A ha, my hearties," roared the leader, turning to his motley crew, "finepickings 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 piecesof gold in his belt.

"Say your prayers, my pigeons," he continued, with a vile oath, "for TheBlack Wolf leaves no evidence behind him to tie his neck with a halterlater, and dead men talk the least."

"If it be The Black Wolf," whispered Father Claude to the boy, "no worsefate could befall us for he preys ever upon the clergy, and when drunk, ashe now is, he murders his victims. I will throw myself before them whileyou hasten through the rear doorway to your horse, and make good yourescape." 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 wascommunicating with the boy.

Norman of Torn could scarce repress a smile at this clever ruse of the oldpriest, and, assuming a similar attitude, he replied in French:

"The good Father Claude does not know Norman of Torn if he thinks he runsout the back door like an old woman because a sword looks in at the frontdoor."

Then rising he addressed the ruffians.

"I do not know what manner of grievance you hold against my good friendhere, nor neither do I care. It is sufficient that he is the friend ofNorman of Torn, and that Norman of Torn be here in person to acknowledgethe debt of friendship. Have at you, sir knights of the great filth andthe mighty stink !" and with drawn sword he vaulted over the table and fellupon the surprised leader.

In the little room, but two could engage him at once, but so fiercely didhis blade swing and so surely did he thrust that, in a bare moment, TheBlack Wolf lay dead upon the floor and the red giant, Shandy, was badly,though not fatally wounded. The four remaining ruffians backed quicklyfrom the hut, and a more cautious fighter would have let them go their wayin peace, for in the open, four against one are odds no man may pit himselfagainst with impunity. But Norman of Torn saw red when he fought and thered lured him ever on into the thickest of the fray. Only once before hadhe fought to the death, but that once had taught him the love of it, andever after until his death, it marked his manner of fighting; so that menwho loathed and hated and feared him were as one with those who loved himin acknowledging that never before had God joined in the human frameabsolute supremacy with the sword and such utter fearlessness.

So it was, now, that instead of being satisfied with his victory, he rushedout after the four knaves. Once in the open, they turned upon him, but hesprang into their midst with his seething blade, and it was as though theyfaced four men rather than one, so quickly did he parry a thrust here andreturn a cut there. In a moment one was disarmed, another down, and theremaining two fleeing for their lives toward the high road with Norman ofTorn close at their heels.

Young, agile and perfect in health, he outclassed them in running as wellas in swordsmanship, and ere they had made fifty paces, both had thrownaway 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 hiswounded comrade. They were brothers, named Flory, and one would not desertthe other. It was evident that the wounded man was in no danger, so Normanof Torn ordered the others to assist him into the hut, where they found RedShandy sitting propped against the wall while the good father poured thecontents of a flagon down his eager throat.

The villain's eyes fairly popped from his head when he saw his fourcomrades coming, unarmed and prisoners, back to the little room.

"The Black Wolf dead, Red Shandy and John Flory wounded, James Flory, OneEye 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 shallserve in fairer work than ye have selected for yourselves, but withfighting a-plenty and good reward."

The sight of this gang of ruffians banded together to prey upon the clergyhad given rise to an idea in the boy's mind, which had been revolving in anebulous way within the innermost recesses of his subconsciousness sincehis vanquishing of the three knights had brought him, so easily, suchriches in the form of horses, arms, armor and gold. As was always his wontin his after life, to think was to act.

"With The Black Wolf dead, and may the devil pull out his eyes with red hottongs, 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 astripling, 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 theweak, to lay down your lives in defence of woman, and to prey upon richEnglishmen and harass the King of England."

The last two clauses of these articles of faith appealed to the ruffians sostrongly that they would have subscribed to anything, even daily mass, anda bath, had that been necessary to admit them to the service of Norman ofTorn.

"Aye, aye !" they cried. "We be your men, indeed."

"Wait," said Norman of Torn, "there is more. You are to obey my everycommand on pain of instant death, and one-half of all your gains are to bemine. On my side, I will clothe and feed you, furnish you with mounts andarmor and weapons and a roof to sleep under, and fight for and with youwith a sword arm which you know to be no mean protector. Are yousatisfied ?"

"That we are," and "Long live Norman of Torn," and "Here's to the chief ofthe Torns" signified the ready assent of the burly cut-throats.

"Then swear it as ye kiss the hilt of my sword and this token," pursuedNorman 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 tonumber a thousand men, and which defied a king's army and helped to makeSimon de Montfort virtual ruler of England.

Almost immediately commenced that series of outlaw acts upon neighboringbarons, and chance members of the gentry who happened to be caught in theopen by the outlaws, that filled the coffers of Norman of Torn with manypieces of gold and silver, and placed a price upon his head ere he hadscarce turned eighteen.

That he had no fear of or desire to avoid responsibility for his acts, hegrimly evidenced by marking with a dagger's point upon the foreheads ofthose who fell before his own sword the initials NT.

As his following and wealth increased, he rebuilt and enlarged the grimCastle of Torn, and again dammed the little stream which had furnished themoat with water in bygone days.

Through all the length and breadth of the country that witnessed hisactivities, his very name was worshipped by poor and lowly and oppressed.The money he took from the King's tax gatherers, he returned to themiserable peasants of the district, and once when Henry III sent a littleexpedition 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 dubbedhim, was known by reputation throughout all England, though no man had seenhis face and lived other than his friends and followers. He had become apower to reckon with in the fast culminating quarrel between King Henry andhis foreign favorites on one side, and the Saxon and Norman barons on theother.

Neither side knew which way his power might be turned, for Norman of Tornhad preyed almost equally upon royalist and insurgent. Personally, he haddecided to join neither party, but to take advantage of the turmoil of thetimes 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 manof Torn stood watching the little party from one of the small towers of thebarbican.

Halting beneath this outer gate, the youth winded the horn which hung athis side in mimicry of the custom of the times.

"What ho, without there !" challenged the old man entering grimly into thespirit of the play.

"'Tis Sir Norman of Torn," spoke up Red Shandy, "with his great host ofnoble 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 dismountedwithin 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 highwaysand into the byways of England, to collect from the rich English pigs thatliving which you have ever taught me was owing us."

"'Tis well, my son, and even as I myself would have it; together we shallride 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 inthe land, until even the King shall tremble when he hears it, and shallhate 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 neverdry upon your blade."

As the old man walked away toward the great gate of the castle after thisoutbreak, Shandy, turning to Norman of Torn, with a wide grin, said:

"By the Pope's hind leg, but thy amiable father loveth the English. Thereshould be great riding after such as he."

"Ye ride after ME, varlet," cried Norman of Torn, "an' lest ye shouldforget again so soon who be thy master, take that, as a reminder," and hestruck the red giant full upon the mouth with his clenched fist -- so thatthe 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 todraw; 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 overspreadhis countenance and, going upon one knee, he took the hand of Norman ofTorn and kissed it, as some great and loyal noble knight might have kissedhis 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 beginningof a lifelong devotion and loyalty on the part of Shandy toward his youngmaster, but was prophetic of the attitude which Norman of Torn was toinspire in all the men who served him during the long years that sawthousands pass the barbicans of Torn to crave a position beneath his grimbanner.

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 thisscene, a slight smile upon his old, malicious face.

"'Tis to transcend even my dearest dreams," he muttered. "'S death, but hebe 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 beplaced upon his head for a crown; beneath his feet the platform of a woodengibbet for a throne."