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 l