from such confessions as justice will be able to wring from the prisoners,
he will at the trial stand beside his fellows."

Walter returned to town with his companions. On reaching the armourer's
they found a retainer of the Earl of Talbot awaiting them, with the message
that the Lady Alice Vernon wished the attendance of Walter Fletcher, whose
name she had learned from the Lord Mayor as that of the lad to whom she and
her daughter owed their lives, at noon on the following day, at the
residence of the Earl of Talbot.

"That is the worst of an adventure," Walter said crossly, after the
retainer had departed. "One can't have a bit of excitement without being
sent for, and thanked, and stared at. I would rather fight the best
swordsman in the city than have to go down to the mansion of Earl Talbot
with my cap in my hand."

Geoffrey laughed. "You must indeed have your cap in your hand, Walter; but
you need not bear yourself in that spirit. The 'prentice of a London
citizen may have just as much honest pride and independence as the proudest
earl at Westminster; but carry not independence too far. Remember that if
you yourself had received a great service you would be hurt if the donor
refused to receive your thanks; and it would be churlish indeed were you to
put on sullen looks, or to refuse to accept any present which the lady
whose life you have saved may make you. It is strange, indeed, that it
should be Dame Vernon, whose husband, Sir Jasper Vernon, received the fiefs
of Westerham and Hyde."

"Why should it be curious that it is she?" Walter asked.

"Oh!" Geoffrey said, rather confusedly. "I was not thinking - that is - I