Brilliana

“ Though Evander surveyed his enemies as composedly as if they had been children threatening him with pins, Brilliana knew that the spirit of mischief was alive and that the Cavaliers would not boggle at cruelty, six to one, for the sport of making a Parliament man honor the King against his will. She hated the man, but she would not have him so handled. Instantly she stepped between Evander and the Cavaliers, who fell back with lowered points before their hostess. ”

“ Master Peter paid her what he believed to be a courtly bow.
“That same nameless lady shall praise me,” he chuckled, and, turning, made for the house with all speed. When they were alone, Brilliana and Halfman looked at each other with the mirth of children who have successfully raided an orchard.
“I have netted them,” Brilliana said. “If it do but happen pat, we shall have served the King and punished two cozening faint-hearts. For the best of it is that neither can complain. Each is neck-high in the mire of lies, each has plundered the other, and must be dumb for shame of his knavery.” ”

“ Master Hungerford emerged radiant. For a moment neither squire saw the other. Then Master Rainham, looking away from Brilliana, saw Master Hungerford; and Master Hungerford, looking away from Halfman, saw Master Rainham.
To those who watched the comedy the silence was intense, and throbbing with possibilities as summer air throbs with heat. Brilliana heard Master Rainham say, “What a devil, Master Hungerford,” and Halfman, for his part, averred later that Master Hungerford, too, greeted his neighbor’s presence with an oath. ”

“ Evander asked, sadly.
Brilliana denied him feverishly.
“What can be—what must be!” she cried. “The King has promised.”
“I am a soldier of the Parliament,” Evander asserted. “I cannot abandon my cause.”
Brilliana almost screamed at him in her anger and despair.
“You are a prisoner under sentence of death. If you die, what gain has the Parliament of you, and I must live a widowed woman.” ”

“ Brilliana answered, sharply, “for he makes you his daily jape.”
The ugly boar-head looked uglier as it growled:
“Does he, the dog! I’d jape him if I gad my two hands upon him.”
“Why,” Brilliana asserted, now in the full tide of make-believe, “if you are a King’s man, he will be of the other side, he hates you so. I cannot think how you have earned his hatred, unless, indeed—” and she broke off suddenly [Pg 160] and looked aside. Halfman would have given a shilling for a lonely place to laugh his fill in. ”

“ Brilliana, hearing, moved a little forward. She had failed and felt shamed. Yet this thing must not happen. She could not leave her enemy thus to the mercy of his enemies. But what she would have said was stayed by a sudden diversion.
Interest in all the events that had so swiftly passed before them had gravely relaxed the vigilance of Evander’s guardians. Garlinge and Clupp—a strong Gyas and a strong Cloanthes—open-eyed and open-mouthed, were open-handed also and clawed no clutch upon their prisoner’s shoulder. ”

“ Brilliana confirmed, “I hold him as hostage for the life of Cousin Randolph. You know that he is a prisoner?”
“I heard that news with the rest of the budget,” Sir Blaise answered. “And what kind of a creature is your captive? Does he deafen you with psalms, does he plague you with exhortations?”
Brilliana laughed merrily.
[Pg 170]
“No, no; ’tis a most wonderful wild-fowl. My people swear he is mettled in all gentle arts, from the manage of horses to the casting of a falcon.”
Sir Blaise shook his staff in protest of indignation. ”

“ Whatever joy the tidings gave to Brilliana, she wasted no words from the needs of the moment. Pointing to Evander where he stood, irresolute in surprise, she commanded, “Secure that man!”
Evander’s resolution returned to him with the sound of her voice, but he was one against too many. While he tried to engage the blade of Halfman, a swinging blow from the pike of Garlinge knocked his weapon out of his hand, and in another moment he was gripped in the grasp of the two young country giants, while Thoroughgood covered him with his musketoon. ”

“ The King!” Brilliana cried, in an ecstasy, and as the loyal syllables died on her lips there came a trampling of near feet, and then through the yawning doorway rushed a covey of young gentlemen waving their drawn swords and yelling their cry, “The King! The King!” As they flooded into the room, bright [Pg 76] foam on the wave of victorious loyalty, Brilliana knew them all. Sir Rufus Quaryll, her neighbor and hot lover; the Lord Fawley, who had vainly wooed her for wife; Sir John Radlett, who had the sense to love her and the sense to hold his tongue; Captain Bardon, the bold and bluff ”

“ George! she employs the most irresistible logic.”
Evander and Brilliana, blown apart, as it were, by the breath of the King’s merriment, regarded the monarch with very different feelings. Though he stood upon the edge of peril’s precipice, at the threshold of death’s temple, Evander could not scrutinize without vivid and conflicting emotions the face of the man because of whom the solid realm of England seemed to be dissolving into anarchy. ”

“ So deep was Evander in his book that he did not hear a lady’s footfalls on the grass. When the discomfited Sir Blaise had quitted the arena Brilliana held herself unseen and then swiftly sped back to the pleasaunce. She stood for some seconds on the threshold of a yew arch watching the reading man and wondering why it had pleased Providence to make a Puritan so personable and skilful, wondering why she of all women should take any interest either in his person or in his skill, wondering how long he would remain buried in his tiresome book unconscious of her presence. ”

“ Evander said, gravely.
Brilliana had lifted the big book onto her lap and was turning the pages tenderly, pausing here and there with loving murmurs.
“Had I been a man,” she said, softly, “I should have turned player for the pleasure to speak such golden words.”
Evander, watching her fair, lowered face under its crown of dark hair, thought of all that Imogen might mean, or Rosalind or Juliet, did each of these dear ones show on the stage like this lady. He gave the odd thought form in speech.
“It is strange,” he said, almost to himself, “that a Cavalier world is content without women players.” ”

“ The Lady Brilliana resumes her command of Loyalty House, with our royal thanks for her man’s spirit and our royal sympathy for her woman’s heart. As for the stranger within our gates, we have of our clemency given him full leave to go hence in all freedom, not without some private supplications that Heaven may be pleased to lift a misguided gentleman into a better way of life. ”

“ The door opened and the soldier in immediate attendance upon the King entered.
“Tell Sir Rufus to attend us,” the King said. [Pg 263] The soldier bowed and withdrew. Charles looked up at Brilliana. “Sir Rufus will be loath to lose his prey,” he said. “He is a fierce hawk that clings to his quarry.”
“He was once my friend,” Brilliana said, sadly. The King smiled his melancholy smile. ”

“ She had never seen her King, yet she felt as if she saw him daily, visible in the living flesh, so keenly did her loyalty seem to quicken color and canvas. Brilliana was not the only soul in England whose loyalty gave the King a kind of godhead, but if she had many peers she had none, nor could have, who overpassed her.
On the morning of the third day of Evander’s stay at Harby, Halfman sat on the edge of the table in the garden-room and stared through the open doorway into the green beyond. ”

“ Brilliana, Lady Harley to Sir William Vavasour, July 31 1643, July 31. — I now perceive you received the letter I sent you yesterday. I am in the same mind I was then, that if you will give me liberty to send to Sir William Pelham that so I may procure a pass, I shall take it for a favour, but that I hope did not discover any intentions in me that I would admit of a guard being put upon me. Sir, far be it from me, I should ever believe our gracious King — to whom I am a most loyal subject — should take it for a disobedience in me if I should not admit of soldiers in my house. ”

“ Brilliana still seemed to hesitate. That word “honor” had frightened her for Evander, had frightened her for herself. She now groped uncertain, who thought to tread so surely.
“Will you do as I wish if I tell you?” she asked, trying to mask anxiety with a jesting manner. And when Evander responded gravely, “If I can,” she pressed him impetuously again.
“Nay, now, make me a square promise.” She looked very fair as she pleaded.
“All that a doomed man can do—” Evander replied, smiling somewhat wistfully.
Brilliana shook her head vehemently and her Royalist curls danced round her bright cheeks. ”

“ Sir Blaise swung round upon his heels and stared in the direction indicated by Brilliana. He saw Evander, black against the sunlit trees, the sunlit grasses, and he smiled derisively. He was very confident that there was no courage as there could be no wit in any Puritan. These things were the privileges of Cavaliers.
“His brains are buried in his book,” he sneered. “If a stone came in his way now he would stumble over it, he’s so deep in his sour studies. ’Tis some ponderous piece of divinity, I’ll wager, levelled against kings.” ”

“ If the light of her on his eyes dazzled him, if the riot in his mind overprized her excellence, a saner man could scarce have failed to be delighted with the girl’s beauty, a wiser to have denied her visible promises of merit. If better-balanced minds than the mind of Hercules Halfman, striving to conjure up the image of their dreams, had looked upon the face, upon the form, of Brilliana Harby, they might well have been willing to let imagination rest and be contented with the living flesh. ”

“ Both these spirits walked by Evander’s side during his second day at Harby. The one that went in sable reminded him that his horizon was dwindling almost to his feet; the other, in rose and gold, hinted that it is better to be emperor for a day than beggar for a century. And truly through all that day Evander esteemed himself happier than an emperor. For he had discovered that Brilliana was the most adorable woman in the world, and, knowing how his span of life was shrinking, he allowed himself to adore without let or hinderance of hostile faiths and warring causes. ”

“ Evander gazed steadfastly at the irate gentleman and made no motion to take the wine. Brilliana, from where she stood, watching him curiously, wrestled with a reluctant admiration of his carriage. Ingrow commented, smoothly, maliciously:
“You see, the gentleman does not drink.”
Ingrow’s words fanned the Cavalier fire.
“Damn him for a disloyal rat!” Radlett shouted. Halfman elbowed his way past him and addressed Rufus.
“Sweet Sir Rufus,” he said, “I have lived in places where a little persuasion has often led folk to act much against their personal inclinations and desires. ”

“ And through all [Pg 290] his horrid thoughts came the sweet voice of Brilliana singing the sweet, brave words, and he saw her curls sway as she sang, and he thought of her love for her kinsman which she had told him so simply, and he thought of his own mad love for her, which she would never know, which no one would ever understand. And then he thought of that grim sentry at the western gate whose hate was black, whose aim was fatal.
A fantastic purpose came into the man’s thought. ”

“ Brilliana clapped her hands like a child that has been promised some coveted comfit.
“You are brave at make-believe. In the mean time let us keep each other company a little. Surely it is dull for a man of action to be [Pg 191] a prisoner, and for my own part I mope sadly now that my little war is well over.”
She had seated herself as she spoke, and she motioned to Evander to take his place by her side. ”

“ The King smiled whimsically, yet a thought wistfully.
“You are a gentle rebel,” he said, and held out his fine, white hand for Evander’s salutation. Then the young soldier rose, and with one look of love to Brilliana, left the room. Charles stood with his grave eyes fixed on his hostess, smiling.
“What a thing is civil war!” he sighed. “How it rips through the pretty web of workaday life, dividing sire from son, sundering brother from brother, parting lover from lass! ”

“ My land holds every penny I get together. Why, ’tis well known in the country that I buy land for a thousand pound every year, wherefore I can never boast more than a guinea in ready money.”
Brilliana frowned on the floundering squire.
“This is a sad business, Master Hungerford, for the King is in need and will oblige hereafter those that oblige him now. His Majesty has made me a kind of viceroy here in Oxford. I begin to think that you incline to the Parliament, Master Paul. If I thought that, I would hold you a traitor and make perquisitions at your place.” ”

“ She paused, out of breath. Brilliana, leaning [Pg 142] forward with an air of infinite gravity, commented:
“It were more to your point, surely, if the gentleman had skill in cook-craft.”
Mistress Satchell was not to be outdone; she clapped her hands together noisily and shrilled her triumph.
“There, too, he meets you. After breakfast this morning, when I asked him how he fared, he overpraised my table, and he gave me a recipe for grilling capons in the Spanish manner—well, you shall know, if you do but live long enough.” ”

“ In the headiness of their brawl none of the party had noticed how the door had opened again and how a man stood at gaze in the doorway. A slender man of middle height, in travel-stained riding-habit of black; a man with a comely, melancholy face and sad eyes; a man who seemed very weary. He wore a jewelled George. For a moment the new-comer stood unheeded, then he advanced into the room. Sir Rufus heard him, turned, and cried, “The King!” Evander sent his sword back into its sheath. Brilliana knelt in reverence. ”