The Lady of Loyalty House Part 6

"That you shall never do," Brilliana answered, steadily, "while there is a living soul in Harby."

The Puritan protested with appealing hands.

"You are in the last straits for lack of food, for lack of fuel, for lack of powder."

Brilliana made a pa.s.sionate gesture of denial.

"You are as ignorant as insolent," she a.s.serted. "Loyalty House lacks neither provisions nor munitions of war."

There was a kind of respectful pity in the stranger's face as he watched the wild, bright girl and hearkened to the vain, brave words.

"Nay, now--" he began, out of the consciousness of his own truer knowledge, but what he would have said was furiously interrupted by a volume of strange sounds from the adjoining banqueting-hall. There was a rattle and clink as of many pewter mugs banged l.u.s.tily upon an oaken table; there was a shrill explosion of laughter, the work of many merry voices; there was the grinding noise of heavy chairs pushed back across the floor for the greater ease of their occupants; there was a tapping as of pipe-bowls on the board, and then over all the mingled din rose a voice, which Brilliana knew for the voice of Halfman, ringing out a resonant appeal.

"The King's health, friends, to begin with."

All the noises that had died down to allow Halfman a hearing began again with fresh vigor. It was obvious to the most unsophisticated listener that here was the f.a.g end of a feast and the moment for the genial giving of toasts. Many voices swelled a loyal chorus of "The King, the King!" and had the great doors of the banqueting-hall been no other than bright gla.s.s it would have been scarce easier for the man and woman in the great hall to realize what was happening, the revellers rising to their feet, the drinking-vessels lifted high in air with loyal vociferations, and then the silence, eloquent of tilted mugs and the running of welcome liquor down the channels of thirsty throats. This silence was broken by some one calling for a song, to which call he who had proposed the King's health answered instantly and with evident satisfaction. His rich if somewhat rough voice came booming through the part.i.tions, carolling a ballad to which the Puritan listened with a perfectly unmoved countenance, while the Lady Brilliana's eager face expressed every signal of the liveliest delight.

This was the song that came across the threshold:

"What creature's this with his short hairs, His little band and huge long ears, That this new faith hath founded?

The Puritans were never such, The saints themselves had ne'er so much, Oh, such a knave's a Roundhead."

A yell of pleasure followed this verse, and a tuneless chorus thundered the refrain, "Oh, such a knave's a Roundhead," with the most evident relish for the sentiments of the song. Brilliana looked with some impatience at the unruffled face of her adversary, and when the immediate clamor dwindled she addressed him, sarcastically:

"These revellers," she said, "would not seem to be at the last extremity. But their festival must not deafen our conference."

She advanced to the door of the banqueting-room and struck against it with her hand. On the instant silence she opened the door a little way and spoke through softly, as if gently chiding those within.

"Be merry more gently, friends. Sure, I cannot hear the gentleman speak. Though," she added, reflectively, as she closed the door and returned again to the table she had quitted--"though G.o.d knows he talks big enough."

The Puritan clapped his palms together as if in applause, an action that somewhat amazed her in him, while a kindly humor kindled in his eyes.

"Bravely staged, bravely played," he admitted, while he shook his head. "But it will not serve your turn, for it may not deceive me. I had a message this morning from my Lord Ess.e.x. There has been hot fighting; Heaven has given us the victory; the King's cause is wellnigh lost at the first push."

Brilliana felt her heart drumming against her stays, but she turned a defiant face on the news-monger.

"I do not believe you," she answered. "The King's cause will always win."

The soldier took no notice of her denial; he felt too sure of his fact to hold other than pity for the leaguered lady. He quietly added:

"My Lord Ess.e.x advises me further that reinforcements are marching to me well equipped with artillery against which even these gallant walls are worthless. Be warned, be wise. You cannot hope to hold out longer. For pity's sake, yield to the Parliament."

Brilliana waved his pleas away with a dainty, impatient flourish.

"You chatter republican vainly. I have store of powder. I will blow this old hall heaven high when I can no longer hold it for the King."

Her visitor looked at her sadly, made as if to speak, paused, and then appeared to force himself to reluctant utterance.

"Lady," he said, slowly, "though we be opponents, we share the same blood. Let a kinsman entreat you to reason."

If the civil-spoken stranger had struck her in the face with his glove Brilliana could not have been more astonished or angered. She moved a little nearer to him, interrogation in her shining eyes and on her angry cheeks.

"Are you mad?" she gasped. "How could such a thing as you be my kinsman?"

She had taunted him again and again during their brief interview and he had shown no sign of displeasure. He showed no sign of displeasure now, answering her with simple dignity.

"Very simply. A lady of your race, your grandsire's sister, married a poor gentleman of my name and was my father's mother."

Brilliana drew back a little as if she had indeed received a blow.

Involuntarily, she put up her hand to her eyes as if to shut out the sight of this importunate fellow.

"I have heard something of that tale," she whispered, "but dimly, for we in Harby do not care to speak of it. When my grandsire's sister shamed her family by wedding with a Puritan her people blotted her from their memory. You will not find her picture on the walls of Harby."

"The loss is Harby's," the soldier answered, "for I believe she was as fair as she was good. She married an honest gentleman named Cloud, whose honesty compelled him to profess the faith he believed in. My name is Evander Cloud."

He waited for a moment as if he expected her to speak, but she uttered no word, only faced him rigidly with hatred in her gaze.

Seeing her silent, he resumed:

"It was this sad kinship pushed me to a parley wherein, perhaps, I have something strained my strict duty. But the voice of our common blood cried out in me to urge you to reason. You have done all that woman, all that man could do. Yield now, while I can still offer you terms, and your garrison shall march out with all the honors of war, drums beating, matches burning, colors flying."

He was very earnest in his appeal, and Brilliana heard him to the end in silence, with her clinched hands pressed against her bosom. Then she turned fiercely upon him and her voice was bitter.

"Sir," she cried, "if I hated you before for a detested rebel, think how I hate you now, if you be, even in so base a way, my kinsman."

She turned away from him, lifting her clasped hands as if in supplication.

"Oh, Heaven, to think that a disloyal, hypocritical, canting Puritan could brag to my face that he carries one drop of our loyal blood in his false heart."

She turned to him again with new fury.

"You are doubly a traitor now, and if you are wise you will keep out of my power, for my heart aches with its hate of you. Go! Five minutes left of your truce gives you just time to return to your rebels. If you overlinger in our lines but one minute you are no longer an envoy: you are an enemy and a spy and shall swing for it."

She reached out her hand to strike the bell upon the table, while Evander Cloud, still impa.s.sive, paid a salutation to his unwilling hostess and made a motion to depart. But on the instant both were chilled into immobility by an amazing interruption. Brilliana's hand never touched the bell; Evander's hand never found the handle of the door. For between the beginning and the end of their action came a sudden rattle of musketry, distant but deafening, followed on the instant by a whirlwind of furious cries and noise.

IX

HOW THE SIEGE WAS RAISED

The man and the woman glared at each other, each in swift suspicion of treason. The Lady of Harby was the quickest to act upon impulse.

She s.n.a.t.c.hed up the pistol that lay upon the table and levelled it with a steady hand at Evander.

"Do you use your trust to betray us?" she shrilled. "It shall not save you."

Even a less-experienced soldier could have seen from the sure way in which Brilliana handled her weapon that his life was in real peril, but he paid no more heed to her menace than if she was threatening him with her glove or her fan.