The Outlaw of Torn | Page 3

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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