Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Outlaw of Torn Edgar Rice Burroughs

Book Excerpt: ... During the years he had served as master of fence at the English Court, the sons of royalty had learned to thrust and parry and cut as only De Vac could teach the art, and he had been as conscientious in the discharge of his duties as he had been in his unswerving hatred and contempt for his pupils. And now the English King had put upon him such an insult as might only be wiped out by blood. As the blow fell, the wiry Frenchman clicked his heels together, and throwing down his foil, he stood erect and rigid as a marble statue before his master. White and livid was his tense drawn face, but he spoke no word. He might have struck the King, but then there would have been left to him no alternative save death by his own hand; for a king may not fight with a lesser mortal, and he who strikes a king may not live -- the king's honor must be satisfied. Had a French king struck him, De Vac would have struck back, and gloried in the fate which permitted him to die for the honor of France; but an English K...