Lenox walked round with the others, admiring the beauty of the sculpture, though rather bored by the eloquence of their guide. At sight of the coat of arms, however, he stopped and whistled.
"By all that's wonderful, that's our family crest!" he exclaimed.
Here was an excitement! At once the whole party began to examine the ancient, worn escutcheon, on which was depicted a chained eagle with a crown on its head, three arrows, and the motto Manu et corde (with hand and heart).
"It's exactly the same!" declared Lenox. "Dad has a copy of the crest in an old book that his grandfather brought out from England more than a hundred years ago."
"It's the arms of the de Cliffords," said their guide, shaken out of her sing-song recitation into first-hand information. "You'll find the same crest on those monuments over there in the nave."
"Dad always said we were descended from an old family," rejoined Lenox, immensely thrilled.
That their young cousin should have discovered the tombs of his ancestors in the village church was certainly a matter of great interest to the Hewlitts. They besieged their guide with questions. She could not really tell them very much, except that from mediæval times the Cliffords had owned the soil, and that the Manor House was now in the possession of Mrs. Elliot, a daughter of old Squire Clifford who had died many years ago.
"It was before I was born, but I've heard my father speak of him," she added.
"Where is the Manor House?" asked Lenox eagerly.
"Two miles beyond the village. It's a beautiful old place too, with a moat round it, and big stone gates."