PREFACE

I must plead guilty to having, for the purposes of the story, placed my hero’s castle (which unhappily no longer exists) much nearer to Rennes than it actually was; but the chief events of his life are given here very much as I found them in the old French chronicles.

DAVID KER.

CONTENTS

Chap.Page
I.The Broken Bough[1]
II.Facing a Monster[7]
III.A Mysterious Message[16]
IV.Bertrand’s Dream[29]
V.A Timely Rescue[37]
VI.Mighty to strike[51]
VII.A Strange Tale[67]
VIII.Lance to Lance[79]
IX.Into the Dragon’s Jaws[93]
X.The Wages of Judas[103]
XI.A Midnight Battle[110]
XII.Crowning an Enemy[126]
XIII.A Red Stain[133]
XIV.The Black Death[140]
XV.A Night Alarm[148]
XVI.The Boldest Deed of all[161]
XVII.The Haunted Circle[168]
XVIII.A Phantom Warrior[177]
XIX.In a Robber Camp[189]
XX.Doomed[194]
XXI.The Black Wolf[206]
XXII.A Clever Stratagem[215]
XXIII.Possessed Swine[222]
XXIV.Through the Darkness[235]
XXV.A Case of Conscience[246]
XXVI.Crescent and Cross[259]
XXVII.An Astounding Revelation[268]
XXVIII.Plot and Counter-plot[276]
XXIX.Treachery[283]
XXX.A Village Festival[299]
XXXI.A Strange Meeting[313]
XXXII.News of an Old Friend[326]
XXXIII.The Last Sunset[337]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page
Bertrand defends the Jester[Frontispiece 61]
Bertrand grapples with the Wolf[9]
The Black Champion conquers[88]
“The Black Knight turned like a Hunted Lion”[163]
“The Shouting Assailants burst in”[220]
“He stared at his Foe’s Revealed Face”[266]

CHAPTER I
The Broken Bough

“What place is there for me on the earth? I would I were dead!”

Startling words, in truth, to hear from any one’s lips; and doubly so from those of a boy of fourteen, with his whole life before him.