XI
AT BAY
Brilliana and the Cavaliers, stirred by the enthusiasm of Halfman'sstanza, caught up the cry commanded and sent it rolling through thehall.
"Vive le Roy! God bless the King!" they shouted, with the loyal tearsin their eyes. Brilliana gave Halfman a grateful smile.
"Well sung, well done," she approved. Halfman glowed. Sir Rufusfrowned a little. Turning hurriedly to his companions, he said:
"Friends, I have another toast for you. I give you the King's sweetwarrior, Oxfordshire's blithe viceroy, 'The Lady of Loyalty House.'"
"Never a better toast in the world," Halfman shouted. "Drink,gallants, drink."
Brilliana crossed her fingers before her face. Through the livinglattice her eyes peeped brightly.
"I protest you make too much of me," she pleaded, while Halfman andthe Cavaliers quickly filled their glasses again and lifted themhigh in air. A chorus of "The Lady of Loyalty House!" rang out, andagain the toast was honored.
"I thank you with all my heart," Brilliana panted, blushing andexcited at the tumult and the praise. There was a moment's silence.Everything worth saying seemed to have been said, everything worthdoing to have been done. Suddenly, in that silence, Bardon caughtsight of Evander where he stood apart, disdainful, between hisguards, and the sight pricked his wits. Turning to his mates, hethumbed at the prisoner over his shoulder.
"Should we not make the crop-ear yonder pledge the Lady of LoyaltyHouse?" he questioned. Radlett rubbed approving hands.
"Well thought. Let him honor his conqueror," he began. The LordFawley tripped him up with a new proposal.
"Stop, stop; not so fast," he protested. "The fellow has not pledgedthe King yet. Let him drink the King's health first and be damned tohim."
The others applauded, but Ingrow, noting a certain sterner tighteningof Evander's mouth, interrupted.
"I'll wager he will not drink," he said, looking maliciously from theflushed faces of the Cavaliers to the pale face of the Puritan.Rufus's temper blazed instantly.
"Will not drink, say you!" he cried. "This mewcant shall pledge atour pleasure or taste our displeasure."
He strode to the table, filled a cup of wine, and set it down on thecorner nearest to Evander.
"Come, you Roundpoll," he continued--"come, you Geneva mumbler, hereis a cup for you to wash down the dust of your dry thoughts. Drink, Igive you 'The King.'"
Evander gazed steadfastly at the irate gentleman and made no motionto take the wine. Brilliana, from where she stood, watching himcuriously, 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 hisway past him and addressed Rufus.
"Sweet Sir Rufus," he said, "I have lived in places where a littlepersuasion has often led folk to act much against their personalinclinations and desires. Out swords and force the toast."
As he spoke he drew his sword with his best Mercutio manner, and thesuggestion and the naked steel carried contagion. Every gentlemanunsheathed his sword; all advanced upon Evander, a line of shiningpoints.
"Bait him, bait him!" Bardon shouted.
Ingrow shrilled, "Tickle him, prick him, pink him till he drinks!"
Though Evander surveyed his enemies as composedly as if they had beenchildren threatening him with pins, Brilliana knew that the spirit ofmischief was alive and that the Cavaliers would not boggle atcruelty, six to one, for the sport of making a Parliament man honorthe King against his will. She hated the man, but she would not havehim so handled. Instantly she stepped between Evander and theCavaliers, who fell back with lowered points before their hostess.
"Wait, sirs," she ordered, "let me see if my entreaties will not makethe bear more gracious."
She took up the cup where Rufus had set it down, and, coming close toEvander, held the vessel to him with her sweetest smile, the smilewhich, she had been assured a thousand times, would tame a savage andshatter adamant. "Will you not pledge the best gentleman in England?"she asked, with a voice all honey.
Very courteously Evander took the proffered cup from her fingers andgave her back her smile. Brilliana's heart thrilled with pleasure atthis new proof of beauty's victory.
"I will drink at your wish," he said, looking at her with a quietsmile and speaking as if he and she were alone together in the greathall. "I will drink at your wish, but with my own wit." Still lookinginto the gratified eyes of Brilliana, he lifted the cup.
"I drink," he cried, loud and clear, "to the best man in England. Idrink to Colonel Cromwell."
He drained the glass and sent it crashing into the fireplace. Then hefolded his arms and faced his antagonists.
Brilliana's heart seemed for a second to stand still. So beauty hadnot triumphed, after all. Dimly, as one in a dream, she could hearthe fury of the Cavaliers find words.
"You black Jack, I will clip your ears," Rufus promised.
"Blood him. Blood him," bawled Fawley.
"Slit his nose," Radlett suggested.
"Duck him in the horse-pond," suggested Bardon.
"Set him in the stocks," Ingrow advised.
Halfman, seeing how Brilliana leaned against the table, her facepale as her smock, raged at her daring denier. He stretched out hissword as if to marshal and restrain the passions of the Cavaliers.
"Would it not be properer sport, sirs," he asked, "to tie him in achair, like Guido Fawkes on November day, and take him through thevillage that loyal lads may pelt a traitor?"
Once again Halfman's pleasant invention pleased the fancy of hisallies.
"Well said," assented Rufus. "Fetch a rope, some one."
Brilliana, hearing, moved a little forward. She had failed and feltshamed. Yet this thing must not happen. She could not leave her enemythus to the mercy of his enemies. But what she would have said wasstayed by a sudden diversion.
Interest in all the events that had so swiftly passed before them hadgravely relaxed the vigilance of Evander's guardians. Garlinge andClupp--a strong Gyas and a strong Cloanthes--open-eyed andopen-mouthed, were open-handed also and clawed no clutch upon theirprisoner's shoulder. Thoroughgood, confused between jealous thoughtsof Tiffany and envious admiration of the manner in which Halfmanhandled the gentry, was as heedless as his inferiors, and wastherefore taken too much by surprise to offer the slightestresistance when Evander, suddenly springing from between his guards,snatched from his supine arms the captured sword that had beenintrusted to his keeping. Before he or any other of the astonishedspectators could take any action Evander had leaped lightly into thealcove of the window, and, dragging by main force the heavy table infront of him, so as to blockade his corner, showed himself snuglyintrenched behind a rampart which his single sword might well hope tohold at least for some time against the swords of half a dozenassailants.
"You will find me a spoil sport," he cried, cheerily, as he stood onguard behind the massive bulk of oak. "Dogs, here is a hart at bay;beware his antlers."
"Bravely done, rebel," Brilliana cried, aloud, as if in spite ofherself, as she beheld the reckless deed, and "Bravely done, rebel,"Halfman echoed, in his reluctant turn, as he heard his lady's wordsand saw the light of praise on his lady's face. Though he hated thePuritan as cordially as if he had been a King's man all his days, hecould not deny his courage, and his scene of effective action madehim wish himself in Evander's place, taking the stage so skilfullyand dominating the situation. But above all this, if Brillianaapplauded the rebel's act, then the rebel's life was of some value,and until he received his lady's orders the rebel's life should besacred to Halfman. So he struck up with his sword the pikes thatGarlinge and Clupp levelled, clumsily enough, and were preparing tothrust at Evander over the interposing barrier. At the same momentRufus, for a very different reason, restrained the action of hiscomrade Cavaliers, who were making ready for a combined rush
, swordin hand, upon their enemy. Rufus saw instantly how well intrenchedtheir enemy lay; it would be hard for any sword to reach him acrossthat width of oak, and even push of pike, when delivered by suchloutish fingers as now governed those weapons, might easily beparried by a swordsman so skilful as he guessed Evander to be. Butthere was no generosity towards a brave adversary in Rufus's action.In his hot ferocity he merely wished to make sure of his quarry asquickly as possible.
"You shall be no hart-royal," he answered, fiercely, taking up thehunter's challenge. "You shall not escape. We shall sound the mort ofthe deer in a moment. Give me your gun, fellow."
This last command was addressed to Thoroughgood, who had brought hismusketoon to the ready and was waiting irresolute for command. SirRufus snatched the weapon from him and was about to aim at Evanderwhen, to his rage, Brilliana stepped between him and his mark.
"Stay your hand, Sir Rufus," she commanded, with a frown on the fairface to which the color had now returned. "It is for me, and for meonly, to give orders here. This is my prisoner, and were he ten timesa Roundpoll he should have honest handling."
Sir Rufus would fain have protested, would fain have carried hispoint, but he saw that in the face of her whom it was his heart'sdesire to please which reduced him to sullen obedience. He shruggedhis shoulders. "As you please," he muttered, as he returned the gunto Thoroughgood and, turning on his heel to hide his vexation, joinedhis comrades, who seemed all to share, discomfited, in his rebuke,and to deprecate the anger of Brilliana. Brilliana went up to thetable, and, poising herself against it by pressing the palms of herhands on its surface, looked with gracious entreaty into the graveeyes of Evander, who lowered his sword in respectful greeting.
The Lady of Loyalty House: A Novel Page 12