Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Outlaw of Torn Edgar Rice Burroughs

Here is a story that has lain dormant for seven hundred years. At first it was suppressed by one ofthe Plantagenet kings of England. Later it was forgotten. I happened to dig it up by accident. Theaccident being the relationship of my wife's cousin to a certain Father Superior in a very ancientmonastery 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 fromthe fact that it records the story of a most remarkable revenge and the adventurous life of itsinnocent 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 uniquecharacter about whom the tale revolves-the visored horseman who-but let us wait until we get tohim. It all happened in the thirteenth century, and while it was happening, it shook England fromnorth 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 hispowerful 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 thisJune day in the year of our Lord 1243, Henry so forgot himself as to very unjustly accuse DeMontfort 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 heightand turned those gray eyes on the victim of his wrath, as he did that day, he was very imposing. Apower in England, second only to the King himself, and with the heart of a lion in him, he answeredthe 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 fromdemanding satisfaction for such a gross insult. That you take advantage of your kingship to say whatyou would never dare say were you not king, brands me not a traitor, though it does brand you acoward."Tense silence fell upon the little company of lords and courtiers as these awful words fell fromthe lips of a subject, addressed to his king. They were horrified, for De Montfort's bold challengewas to them but little short of sacrilege. Henry, flushing in mortification and anger, rose to advance upon De Montfort, but suddenlyrecollecting the power which he represented, he thought better of whatever action he contemplatedand, with a haughty sneer, turned to his courtiers.