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