The Lady of Loyalty House: A Novel
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XVII
SET A KNAVE TO CATCH A KNAVE
Brilliana had much ado to keep from laughing in the face of theuncouth genuflector, but she kept a grave face and uttered gravecomplaint.
"Master Hungerford! Master Hungerford! They tell me sad tales of you.Though you are as wealthy as wealthy you will not mend the King'sexchequer."
Master Paul gave vent to such a wail as a dog makes when one treadsunaware upon his tail, and clapped his hands about piteously.
"I wealthy! Forgive you, lady, for listening to such tales. I am notso graced. I am little bigger than a beggar."
Brilliana wagged her curls.
"Why, now, Master Hungerford, you have a great estate."
Master Hungerford's whine rose higher, and he paddled at the air asif he sought to come to some surface and breathe free.
"Great land, lady--great land, if you will, but little cash. My landholds every penny I get together. Why, 'tis well known in the countrythat I buy land for a thousand pound every year, wherefore I cannever 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 needand will oblige hereafter those that oblige him now. His Majesty hasmade me a kind of viceroy here in Oxford. I begin to think that youincline to the Parliament, Master Paul. If I thought that, I wouldhold you a traitor and make perquisitions at your place."
Master Hungerford groaned dismally:
"Lordamercy!" he moaned. "I am the loyalest knight in England. Nay,now, if you talk of perquisitions there is my neighbor Peter Rainham.I know him for a skinflint who will deny the King. Yet I know of achest of his that is stuffed with gold pieces. Were he a true man hewould shift his treasure into the King's sack, as I would if I hadsuch a store."
A fantastic possibility danced into Brilliana's brain. She glanced towhere Halfman stood moodily ruminating on the method he would employto loosen Master Hungerford's purse-strings if he had him at hismercy in a taken town. Brilliana could not read his thoughts, whichwas as well, but she gave him a glance which stirred him to alertnessas she resumed her interrogatory of her niggardly neighbor.
"Why, then, Master Hungerford, if he be as you say, he is littlebetter, if better at all, than a Parliament man, and, therefore, ourcommon enemy."
Master Paul rubbed his lean hands in delight.
"It is indeed as you say," he affirmed, with a sour smile that satvery vilely on his yellow face. Brilliana leaned forward, and,governing his shifty eyes, spoke very impressively.
"Now meseems you might win great credit in the King's eyes, at nocost to yourself, if you were to lay hands on this treasure in theKing's name."
Master Paul's alarm asserted itself in a shriek.
"Lordamercy, lady, what of the law of the land? Would you have meturn footpad, house-breaker?"
His jaws shook, his joints twitched, he was abject in alarm.Springing to her feet, Brilliana spoke impatiently.
"A Parliament man is outside the King's law; his goods are forfeit,and to confiscate them as legal as loyal. I thought you might chooseto serve the King and please me." This last was said with an accentof disdain which made the unhappy squire shiver. "I was in error, sono more words of it. Good-day to you."
And my Lady Brilliana made Master Paul a courtesy so contemptuous anda gesture of dismissal so decisive that Master Hungerford's terrordeepened. If the King's cause were to go well, if the lady indeed hadfavor with his Majesty, to offend her would be verily a piece ofmortal folly. He came nigh to falling on his knees as he pleaded.
"Nay, nay, never so hot, now; I am your suitor, in faith, I am yourvery good servant. I would serve your will in this if I could butmarch with the law."
Brilliana jumped at his concession. She saw Tiffany in the distancecrossing the garden towards her and guessed that she came to announcethe arrival of the other miser; so she was eager to clinch thebusiness with Master Hungerford.
"Why, so you ever shall, with the King's law. What more easy? Irepresent the King in this district; this fellow is a suspectedrebel; I give you leave to search his house for arms."
Master Paul pricked his ears. "Ah, so, for arms, you say?"
Tiffany paused in the archway and jerked her thumb over her shoulderin the direction of the house. Brilliana shrugged her shoulders,impatient of Master Paul's denseness.
"If you find gold in your search for steel, so much the better. Come,come, this is your happy time, for I am told Master Rainham isabroad."
She gave a glance for confirmation at Halfman, who lounged forward.
"That he is," he asserted, briskly. "He has gone a-marketing."
"Then to it at once!" Brilliana cried, eying the wavererencouragingly. "Take such of my people as you will. You will findsome at the stables yonder," and as she spoke she pointed in thedirection opposite to the house. "Master Rainham's miserliness keepsbut a small retinue. You will meet with no resistance. Go forth, myknight."
Master Paul almost skipped with delight and he cracked his fingersvigorously. He seemed even less pleasing merry than terrified.
"You call me your knight." He turned and took Halfman to witness."She calls me her knight. I'll do it. I'll do it," he voiced,exultingly.
Brilliana, with strenuous self-restraint, seemed to applaud hisantics.
"Bravely said, Chivalry!" she cried. "Let it be done, and well done,ere dusk."
Master Paul quavered before her in an ecstasy of delighted obedience.
"I fly, enchantress--I fly!" he chirruped. Then, as he turned to go,another thought struck him, and he entreated, grotesquelylanguishing, "Prithee, your hand to kiss first."
Brilliana denied him affably.
"By-and-by, maybe, as the prize of your triumph. Farewell."
After sundry strange scrapings, Master Hungerford took his departurein the direction of the stables. As soon as his back was turned,Brilliana questioned her maid.
"Well, Tiffany, is it Master Rainham?"
"Ay, my lady," Tiffany answered, demurely. She knew there was somemanner of mystification forward and yearned for the key to it. "Hechafes in the music-chamber."
"Send him here top-speed," Brilliana commanded. With a whisk offlying skirts Tiffany scuttered back to the house, and Brillianaturned to Halfman, the laughter in her eyes seeking and finding thelaughter in his.
"Well," she said, "our angling prospers blithely. We have tickled onefish. Now for the other chub."
Halfman, who had been swaying with silent merriment ever since thedeparture of Master Paul, suddenly grew steady again and lookedwarnings.
"He asks for another kind of angling, as I gather," he suggested.Brilliana looked daintily wise.
"As I bait the hook I believe I will land him. It will be rare if Ican make Paul rob Peter while Peter plunders Paul. How dare they beso close-fisted while the King's flag is flying and England's honorin peril!"
If she said this with any idea of palliating the possible lawlessnessof her action in the eyes of her companion, she wasted her words.Halfman had not been so happy since his return to England, not evenin the briskest days of the siege, as he was now in the staging ofthis lawless comedy. The old pirate jigged in him at this fair maid'sstrategy.
"By St. Nicholas," he swore, "they should be bled white for a braceof knaves! This, I take it, is your other honor-bankrupt atomy."