uncomfortable, and together the two sat down to the meal that was already

partially on the board.

Thus began a friendship which lasted during the lifetime of the good

priest. Whenever he could do so, Norman of Torn visited his friend, Father

Claude. It was he who taught the boy to read and write in French, English

and Latin at a time when but few of the nobles could sign their own names.

French was spoken almost exclusively at court and among the higher classes

of society, and all public documents were inscribed either in French or

Latin, although about this time the first proclamation written in the

English tongue was issued by an English king to his subjects.

Father Claude taught the boy to respect the rights of others, to espouse

the cause of the poor and weak, to revere God and to believe that the

principal reason for man's existence was to protect woman. All of virtue

and chivalry and true manhood which his old guardian had neglected to

inculcate in the boy's mind, the good priest planted there, but he could

not eradicate his deep-seated hatred for the English or his belief that the

real test of manhood lay in a desire to fight to the death with a sword.

An occurrence which befell during one of the boy's earlier visits to his

new friend rather decided the latter that no arguments he could bring to

bear could ever overcome the bald fact that to this very belief of the

boy's, and his ability to back it up with acts, the good father owed a

great deal, possibly his life.

As they were seated in the priest's hut one afternoon, a rough knock fell

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