Rupert came as he was bidden, but he came unwillingly. He halted at Merrylips' elbow, and kept his eyes cast down, while he plucked at the hem of his worn doublet. Merrylips knew that he waited for her to speak, and with Munn looking on, she wondered if she dared. "You're yourself but a young one," said Lord Caversham, in a kindly, careless voice. "A son to one of the troopers in the Monksfield garrison, they tell me." Rupert looked up. "No, my lord," he said. Then he dared say no more, but with his eyes asked help of Merrylips. And she gave it. Even if twenty Munns had sat there, she would have given help in answer to such a look. "Please you, my lord," she spoke out bravely, and took Rupert's hand in hers, "he is no common trooper's lad. His true name is called Robert Lucas, and he is son to an English gentleman, one Captain Edward Lucas that died long since in camp in High Germany." She had to stop then to draw breath, and she heard Munn cry sharply:-- "Merrylips! Good faith, where got you that crack-brained story?" Then Munn added, more calmly:-- "Believe me, my lord Caversham, that boy yonder is a son or nephew or the like to one of mine own troopers, a Saxon fellow named Hinkel, and known as such to all the Monksfield garrison." "Oh, but indeed thou art mistaken, Munn," pleaded Merrylips. She could not keep her voice from shaking. For all those faces that had looked so kindly on her had now grown doubtful and impatient, and she was half afraid. But still she went on:-- "Rupert is truly son to Captain Lucas and to Lady Venetia that was my godmother's sister, and he hath a ring--" "So you say, boy, those were your parents' names?" Lord Caversham asked sternly. Rupert now was facing him steadily enough. "My lord--" he began. Then for a moment he hesitated. Indeed he would have been glad to claim the kindred that Merrylips had said was surely his! But he had to speak the truth, and he did it bravely. "I know not the name of my father nor my mother," he said. "But my nurse said my father's name was Lucas, and he was a captain, and the rest--Merrylips knew the rest and told it unto me." "Why, this is rare!" cried Dick Fowell, and he seemed angrier even than Munn himself. "Here's a complete trickster for so young a lad! So, you, sirrah, you've drained that little girl dry, and from her prattle have patched up this story of your great kin with which to cozen us." The chaplain said that Rupert were best confess at once that he was telling a false story. Dick Fowell's brother swore that such a young liar deserved a whipping. Munn Venner, who was as loud as any, vowed that such a tale, of a lost child of Lady Venetia's, was too strange for belief. And all the time Merrylips and Rupert held each other fast by the hand and wondered what they should say next. But in the midst of this clamor, Lord Caversham himself spoke out.