The Lady of Loyalty House: A Novel
Page 10
IX
HOW THE SIEGE WAS RAISED
The man and the woman glared at each other, each in swift suspicionof treason. The Lady of Harby was the quickest to act upon impulse.She snatched up the pistol that lay upon the table and levelled itwith a steady hand at Evander.
"Do you use your trust to betray us?" she shrilled. "It shall notsave you."
Even a less-experienced soldier could have seen from the sure way inwhich Brilliana handled her weapon that his life was in real peril,but he paid no more heed to her menace than if she was threateninghim with her glove or her fan.
"Fighting outside!" he cried. Turning to the woman he asked, with afierceness that contrasted with his previous calm, "Who is thetraitor here?"
His sword was naked in his hand as he spoke and he made a rush forthe door. But before he could reach it it was flung open in his faceand Halfman rushed in, waving his drawn sword, and followed byThoroughgood carrying a gun and Garlinge and Clupp armed with pikes.
Inevitably bewildered by the sudden turn in the tide of events,Evander Cloud gave ground for a moment before the onrush, whileHalfman, staggering like a drunken man, reeled forward towardsBrilliana, shrieking:
"There is fighting in the rebel lines. Help has come at last."
Whatever joy the tidings gave to Brilliana, she wasted no words fromthe 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, buthe was one against too many. While he tried to engage the blade ofHalfman, a swinging blow from the pike of Garlinge knocked his weaponout of his hand, and in another moment he was gripped in the grasp ofthe two young country giants, while Thoroughgood covered him with hismusketoon.
"This is treachery," he gasped; but no one paid any attention to hisprotest. Halfman, convinced that the Puritan was a sure prisoner,swaggered up to Brilliana with all the arrogance of a stage herald.
"Dear lord," he shouted, "dear lady, a company of Cavaliers aregalloping up the avenue, a-shouting like devils for the King."
He was flushed and drunk with exhilaration; he could speak no more;the timely episode tickled his tired brain like wine; he caught atthe table for support and muttered inarticulately. Thoroughgood, whohad secured Evander's fallen sword, interpolated a word ofexplanation.
"It is Sir Rufus, my lady--Sir Rufus and his friends."
The interruption had been so sudden, the things that had chanced hadpassed so swiftly, that Brilliana still stood as she had stood whenshe gave the command to secure Evander. But now all her being seemedalive with a new life.
"I hear them; I hear them!" she cried, exultantly. And, indeed, thesounds came very clearly now of fierce young voices shouting for theKing.
"The King! The King!" Brilliana cried, in an ecstasy, and as theloyal syllables died on her lips there came a trampling of near feet,and then through the yawning doorway rushed a covey of younggentlemen waving their drawn swords and yelling their cry, "The King!The King!" As they flooded into the room, bright foam on the wave ofvictorious loyalty, Brilliana knew them all. Sir Rufus Quaryll, herneighbor and hot lover; the Lord Fawley, who had vainly wooed her forwife; Sir John Radlett, who had the sense to love her and the senseto hold his tongue; Captain Bardon, the bold and bluff; and youngLord Richard Ingrow, with the delicate, girlish face that masked theamazing rake. She seemed to see them as in some golden dream, seemedto hear a-down the vistas of dreams the echoes of their gallant criesof "God save the King!" Then as the new-comers knelt before her sheknew that all was true.
"God bless you, gentlemen!" she cried, from a full heart. "You arevery well come."
Rufus Quaryll, neighbor and wooer, was the first to speak, looking upat her with rapture in his eyes of reddish brown.
"Imperial lady, the siege of Harby is raised."
Brilliana flung out her hands to him, and as he caught and kissedthem she raised him to his feet.
"Your news is music," she said, and her voice was as blithe as asong.
"We are heralds of victory," Rufus said, as he stood and looked intoher eyes.
My Lord Fawley rose from his knees with a whoop.
"We have pelted the rebels from Edgehill," he shouted. Sir JohnRadlett caught him up. "We banged them finely," he trumpeted. YoungIngrow, with a flush on his fine cheeks, sang out a shrill "Hurrahfor Prince Rupert!" and bluff Bardon rubbed his hands as he chuckled,"He brushed them into dust."
All the Cavaliers spoke rapidly and eagerly, flinging their phraseseach on top of the other. Rufus summed up all in a single splendidsentence.
"The road lies plain to London."
"Heaven be praised," Brilliana ejaculated, and then, wonder treadingon the heels of thankfulness, she questioned, "How came you here sotimely?"
My Lord Fawley broke into a boisterous laugh which seemed to rattleamong the rafters.
"Oh, Lord, the best jest in the world," he bellowed. Bardon clapped ahand on lad Ingrow's shoulder.
"Our Ingrow writes a clerky hand," he asserted. Ingrow, stabbing atBardon's stout ribs with slender fingers, riposted:
"And our Bardon has a merry invention."
Brilliana looked commands and entreaties at the row of jolly,laughing faces.
"Do not play the sphinx with me," she pleaded. Rufus immediatelymade himself interpreter of the mirth.
"Why, between us we forged a letter from my lord high damnabletraitor Essex to your enemy here, advising him of reinforcements,assuring him of the King's defeat."
"Yes," chirruped the Lord Fawley, "and the gull-gaby swallowed thebait."
"When we rode up but now," Radlett interposed, "his rascals receivedus with open arms."
Rufus smiled sardonically as he completed the story of theentrapment.
"They took us for Essex men because of our orange-tawny scarves, butthey found out when too late that we were right-tight Cavalier ladsand no crop-eared curmudgeons. Why, we were in the thick of them withsword and pistol before they had stayed from snuffling their psalmsof welcome."
Brilliana held out her hand again for her cousin's hand and claspedit manfully.
"How rich is the ring of victory in your loyal voice," she sighed."My last public news was of the King's stay at Shrewsbury. Then thesecurmudgeons raced hot-foot from Cambridge to pull down my flag. But'This is Loyalty House,' says I, and 'Go to the devil,' saysI--forgive me, sirs, if I raged unmaidenly--and I slammed the doorin their sour faces. Then came such a tintamar, rebels firing on us,we firing on rebels, and so in such noise and thunder we have beeneclipsed out of the world these weary days."
"Never were such days better lived through since the world began,"said Rufus. "You do well to call this Loyalty House which has heldout so well against the King's enemies."
Brilliana now turned to where Halfman stood apart, his hands restingon the hilt of his sword, and the shadow of a frown on his foreheadas he eyed the babbling gallants.
"That Loyalty House should hold out so long as it could was from thefirst my purpose," she said. "But that it was able to hold out solong as it did was greatly due to the courage and the counsels ofthis brave gentleman."
As she spoke she pointed to Halfman, whose dark face flushed withpleasure as he gave back the stares of the astonished Cavaliers whoup to now had left him unnoticed.
"Gentles," she went on, "this is Captain Halfman, who warned me of mydanger, who helped me in my peril with his soldier's knowledge andhis soldier's sword, and who was of my own mind rather to die than tosurrender Harby."
Halfman strode forward with a studied grace. He felt likeFaulconbridge; he felt like Harry at Agincourt; he felt likeCoriolanus; he felt exceedingly happy.
"Gallants," he said, with a magnificent salutation, "to have servedthis lady makes a man know how it had seemed to serve Alexander orCaesar. Wherefore, a soldier of good-fortune salutes you."
Rufus, who had watched him with something of a sullen eye from themoment of Brilliana's introductio
n, now answered him with a clearercountenance.
"We greet you, sir," he said, gravely, "with great gratitude andgreat envy, for, indeed, there is none among us who would not havegiven his life to be lieutenant to this lady." He accorded thebeaming Halfman a military salute, and then, turning to Brilliana,continued:
"Bright Brilliana, your servants and swains yearned to ride to yourhelp when we heard of your peril, but we could not leave the King inthe beginning of his enterprise. He gave us glad leave after thevictory. 'Tell the brave lady,' he said, 'she shall be our viceroy inOxfordshire.'"
Brilliana's cheeks blazed with pleasure. "Oh, the dear man," shecried, with clasped hands of rapture. But there was more to come.
"I think," continued Rufus, "it is more than likely that his Majestywill visit Harby--I should say Loyalty House--ere he rides toLondon."
Brilliana thrilled with pride--with pleasure. The air about herseemed to swoon with music, to be sweet as roses, to be spangled withgolden motes.