the room to fetch her belongings.

CHAPTER XIX

When the little, grim, gray man had set the object covered with a cloth
upon the table in the center of the room and left the apartment, he did
not return to camp as Norman of Torn had ordered.

Instead, he halted immediately without the little door, which he left a
trifle ajar, and there he waited, listening to all that passed between
Bertrade de Montfort and Norman of Torn.

As he heard the proud daughter of Simon de Montfort declare her love for
the Devil of Torn, a cruel smile curled his lip.

"It will be better than I had hoped," he muttered, "and easier. 'S blood!
How much easier now that Leicester, too, may have his whole proud heart
in the hanging of Norman of Torn. Ah, what a sublime revenge! I have
waited long, thou cur of a King, to return the blow thou struck
that day, but the return shall be an hundred-fold increased by long
accumulated interest."

Quickly, the wiry figure hastened through the passageways and corridors,
until he came to the great hall where sat De Montfort and the King, with
Philip of France and many others, gentlemen and nobles.

Before the guard at the door could halt him, he had broken into the room
and, addressing the King, cried:

"Wouldst take the Devil of Torn, My Lord King? He be now alone where a
few men may seize him."

"What now! What now!" ejaculated Henry. "What madman be this?"

"I be no madman, Your Majesty. Never did brain work more clearly or to
more certain ends," replied the man.

"It may doubtless be some ruse of the cut-throat himself," cried De
Montfort.

"Where be the knave?" asked Henry.

"He stands now within this palace and in his arms be Bertrade, daughter
of My Lord Earl of Leicester. Even now she did but tell him that she
loved him."

"Hold," cried De Montfort. "Hold fast thy foul tongue. What meanest thou
by uttering such lies, and to my very face?"

"They be no lies, Simon de Montfort. An I tell thee that Roger de Conde
and Norman of Torn be one and the same, thou wilt know that I speak no
lie."

De Montfort paled.

"Where be the craven wretch?" he demanded.

"Come," said the little, old man. And turning, he led from the hall,
closely followed by De Montfort, the King, Prince Philip and the others.

"Thou hadst better bring twenty fighting men--thou'lt need them all to
take Norman of Torn," he advised De Montfort. And so as they passed the
guard room, the party was increased by twen