"Here's a r-rare meeting!" said Crashaw, and stammered more than ever. "R-renounce me, if ye have not l-little Tibbott with you! Now on my word, l-lad, Captain Norris will b-be blithe to see thee s-sound and well." "And is Captain Norris here at Walsover, sir?" Merrylips asked in great surprise. "Ay, that he is," Crashaw answered, "or will b-be with the dawning. For after M-Monksfield fell, we were shuffled off into the w-west, and now at the l-last are joined to the Walsover garrison. Captain Brooke l-led one troop hither but this d-day, and t'other one is hard at our heels. So speedily your old friends will be here to w-welcome you." "So!" said Dick Fowell, dryly, as they rode on once more. "Then I shall be fortuned to speak again with Lieutenant Digby?" Merrylips' heart beat fast to hear him say this. She waited breathlessly for Crashaw's answer. But Crashaw, who was a Romanist, crossed himself. Said he:-- "God r-rest him for a brave soldier! There is now no m-more to say of him." Then Merrylips knew that Miles Digby had fallen in the fight at Monksfield. From the top of the down, which they now had gained, she could see the dear roofs of Walsover and faint lights gleaming through the dusk, but she saw them misted over with her tears. "Oh!" she thought, "I would that I had shaken hands wi' him, since he did wish it, and 'tis now too late!" CHAPTER XXXIV JOURNEY'S END But by the time that they had ridden down the long slope in the twilight, and reached the outermost of the barriers that now were built round Walsover, Merrylips' heart was light again. For she had before her a great happiness. Indeed, it was no small matter to come home at last, after two full years of absence. They laid a plot in whispers, she and Munn, as they rode past the sentinels. Munn should present her to her father as a little boy, and see if he would recognize her. Then they should have sport in presenting her to each one of her kinsfolk in turn. Last of all, they should tell Lieutenant Crashaw that she was no boy, but a little girl. "For 'tis clear he is so newly come to Walsover that he hath not yet had time to learn of our father which child of his was lost from Monksfield," Munn concluded. He chuckled at the thought of the laugh that he should have at Crashaw. And truly it was a beautiful plot! But Dick Fowell could have warned the plotters that such surprises sometimes turn out unexpectedly for their inventors. And so it proved with Munn and Merrylips. Soon they had come into Sir Thomas Venner's presence. He stood, tall and martial, on the hearth in the great hall, ready to receive the envoy that had been sent to him under the white flag. And Munn played his part well. He greeted his father, with all respect and affection, and presented to him Lieutenant Fowell, as one to whom he was much bound in gratitude. Then he began soberly:--