"Thy skill is already considerable and giveth promise of vastly more. I can make thee a knight of rare skill and address if thou carest to become my pupil."
"I will gladly do so," cried Edgar, who was greatly impressed by his new instructor and by the careless ease and power with which he fenced.
"Thou wilt not only practise with me but with others of my pupils; and as they are of all ranks and hie from many countries, thou wilt learn to be at home with whomsoever the tide of war may bring thee into conflict. Come now, and I will take thee into the School of Arms."
When, some two hours later, Edgar rode back to Wolsingham Castle, he felt well satisfied with the step he had taken. The prospect of adding to his prowess with the sword under the guidance of Gaspard Verillac seemed bright indeed.
CHAPTER IV
The Winning of Peter
Regularly twice a week Edgar rode into London and waged strenuous warfare with Gaspard's most promising pupils. So earnest was his purpose and so able the tuition that he made rapid progress, and presently, as he grew in strength and stature, Gaspard was hard put to it to find pupils either ready or able to oppose him.
Indeed, Gaspard soon learned to turn the visits of the young esquire to good account. Oftentimes knights, and even nobles, desirous of obtaining a little private practice before setting out for the wars, were attracted to the school by the reputation of its founder; and on these occasions, instead of wielding the sword himself, Gaspard preferred to call Edgar in and set his pupil to work, contenting himself with administering instruction and reproof as the combat proceeded. To being made use of in this manner Edgar raised not the smallest objection. The heavier and the more desperate the encounter, the greater, he felt, was his chance of onward progress.
It was some twelve months after his visit to Gaspard's school that an adventure befell which influenced considerably Edgar's after career. It had been his habit, when he had stayed unusually late, to take a short cut to the open country through the poorer quarter at the eastward end of the city. The denizens of its narrow alleys and filthy courts were indeed a fierce and lawless crew, but Edgar, in the reliance born of his hard-won prowess with the sword, cared not one straw whether or no his way might lie through the haunts even of criminals and desperadoes. Certain it is that they never ventured to molest him.
But one day, as he was cantering along an alley just wide enough to give free passage to a mounted man, he heard, as he passed the entrance to a narrow court, a sudden burst of piercing screams. Turning his steed and clattering into the court, Edgar surprised a group of rough-looking men crowding round a lad or young man who was being most cruelly beaten by one of their number. The lad was thin and frail and half-starved looking, and his assailant was a burly ruffian of the most brutal type. The lad's screams so worked upon Edgar that, without a moment's hesitation, he urged his horse right amongst the group of men, and, by causing it to kick and plunge violently, scattered them in all directions. The lad's tormentor he treated to a heavy blow with the flat of his sword, just as he was disappearing, scowling horribly, through an open doorway close by.