‘And has no one ever found it?’ said Dora.

‘I cannot say,’ answered Rupert.

’A deed of such high emprise can only be reserved for the great Prince Rupert himself,’ said Elizabeth.

‘How can such nonsensical traditions be kept up?’ said Harriet; ’I thought everyone had forgotten such absurd old stories, only fit to frighten children.’

‘Oh! you know nobody believes them,’ said Katherine.

‘But, Rupert,’ said Helen, ’this must be a modern story, it cannot be a genuine old legend, it is really not according to the spirit of those times to say that a palmer could be an enchanter, or so revengeful.’

‘Oh!’ said Rupert, ’you know everything bad is to be learnt among the Saracens.’

‘Still,’ said Helen, ’if you consider the purpose for which the Palmers visited the Holy Land, you cannot think them likely to learn the dark rites of the Infidels, and scarcely to wish to gratify personal resentment.’

‘The frock does not make the friar,’ said Rupert, ’and this may have been a bad palmer.  Think of the Knights Templars.’

‘Besides,’ said Helen, ’how could the squires see either palmer or jester when it was pitch dark ?’

‘I suppose there were lamps in the court,’ said Rupert; ’but

“I cannot tell how the truth may be,
I tell the tale as ‘twas told to me."’

‘But who told you, Rupert?’ said Helen.

‘Why, the story of Red Mantle, Helen, cannot you see?’ said Elizabeth; ‘it was on the table all the morning.’

‘O Lizzie, was there ever anything so cruel?’ cried Rupert; ’Edie Ochiltree was nothing to you.  Everyone was swallowing it so quietly, and you will not even let me enjoy the credit of originality.’

‘I am sure I give you credit due,’ said Elizabeth; ’it is really an ingenious compound of Red Mantle, the Sleeping Beauty, Robert of Paris, and Triermain, and the cockle-shell shield and star-fish spurs form an agreeable variation.’

‘I never will tell another story in your presence, Lizzie,’ said Rupert, evidently vexed, but carrying it off with great good humour; ’you are worse than Quarterly, Edinburgh, and Blackwood put together.’

‘I really think you deserved it, Rupert,’ said Anne; ’I cannot pity you, you ought not to laugh at the pilgrims.’

‘Oh!  I dare not open my lips before such devotees of crusading,’ said Rupert.

‘And pray, Rupert,’ said Elizabeth, ’what did you mean by comparing me to Edie Ochiltree? did you mean to say that you were like Monkbarns?  I never heard that that gentleman fabricated either legends or curiosities, and made them pass for genuine ancient ones.’

At this moment, happily for Rupert, they came to the top of a small rising ground, and beheld a farmhouse at about a hundred yards before them.  Rupert whistled long and loud and shrill, and two or three of the young ladies exclaimed, ‘Is this Whistlefar Castle?’