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Updated: June 29, 2025
"And if one fact be not enough," he muttered, "that mark upon the dead will quite effectually stop further intercourse between the houses of Torn and Leicester." Henry de Montfort, son of Simon, rode fast and furious at the head of a dozen of his father's knights on the road to Stutevill.
The arms upon shield and helm confirmed his first fear that these had been Bertrade's escort from Stutevill. As he bent over them to see if he recognized any of the knights, there stared up into his face from the foreheads of the dead men the dreaded sign, NT, scratched there with a dagger's point. "The curse of God be on him!" cried De Montfort.
When do we ride?" "At once. You may go." The morning that Bertrade de Montfort had chosen to return to her father's castle dawned gray and threatening. In vain did Mary de Stutevill plead with her friend to give up the idea of setting out upon such a dismal day and without sufficient escort, but Bertrade de Montfort was firm.
Brave daughter of a brave sire though she was, had she seen what he did, her heart would have quailed within her and she would have fled in terror from the clutches of this scourge of England, whose mark she had seen on the dead foreheads of a dozen of her father's knights and kinsmen. Their way to Stutevill lay past the cottage of Father Claude, and here Norman of Torn stopped to don his armor.
"I think you may have no need of fear on that score," spoke Mary, "for Norman of Torn offered no violence to any woman within the wall of Stutevill, and when one of his men laid a heavy hand upon me, it was the great outlaw himself who struck the fellow such a blow with his mailed hand as to crack the ruffian's helm, saying at the time, 'Know you, fellow, Norman of Torn does not war upon women?"
"Come," said the man called Guy, "if there be life left in her, we must hasten to Sir Peter before it be extinct." "I leave ye here," said the little old man. "My part of the business is done." And so he sat watching them until they had disappeared in the forest toward the castle of Colfax. Then he rode back to the scene of the encounter where lay the five knights of Sir John de Stutevill.
Presently the conversation turned to other subjects and Norman of Torn heard no more of himself during that evening. His stay at the castle of Stutevill was drawn out to three days, and then, on the third day, as he sat with Bertrade de Montfort in an embrasure of the south tower of the old castle, he spoke once more of the necessity for leaving and once more she urged him to remain.
"Yes, my sister Bertrade, whom you stole upon the highroad two days since, after murdering the knights of John de Stutevill who were fetching her home from a visit upon the Baron's daughter. We know that it was you for the foreheads of the dead men bore your devil's mark." "Shandy!" roared Norman of Torn. "WHAT MEANS THIS? Who has been upon the road, attacking women, in my absence?
"An' whither may you be bound, Lady Bertrade de Montfort? Be you niece or daughter of the devil, yet still you be a woman, and I do not war against women. Wheresoever you would go will I accompany you to safety." "I was but now bound, under escort of five of my father's knights, to visit Mary, daughter of John de Stutevill of Derby."
"I am Richard de Tany of Essex," said the oldest knight, he who had first spoken, "and these be my daughter and her friend, Mary de Stutevill. We are upon our way from London to my castle. What would you of us? Name your price, if it can be paid with honor, it shall be paid; only let us go our way in peace. We cannot hope to resist the Devil of Torn, for we be but ten lances.
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