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This is not the welcome I expected here. We did not think to find rebels tendered so delicately. Sir Rufus, we give you charge of Harby and of this gentleman. We will consider his claim presently, for we would deal honestly even with our enemies." He looked at Evander. "But we can give you little hope, sir. Prepare to die." Fretfully he addressed Rufus. "I am very weary. I must break my fast."
Halfman watched Evander narrowly while he spoke. Skill with the rapier did not necessarily imply skill with the cudgel. He bore Evander no grudge for overcoming him at fence, but if Sir Blaise proved the better man with the batoon, there would be a kind of compensation in it. He had heard that Sir Blaise was apt at country-sports and now Sir Blaise vaunted his knowledge.
He glanced coldly at Brilliana. "Lady, we shall not need your attendance." Brilliana made her master a deep reverence. "I take my leave, your Majesty." She went close to Evander. "Can you forgive me?" she begged. Evander looked into her wet eyes joyously. "Read in my heart that I thank God to have known you, loved you."
"Lordamercy!" she cried, as she rose from her seat and moved a little way towards Sir Blaise. "Let me bring you acquainted." The Cavalier caught her hand and stayed her before she could speak his name. "Wait, wait," he whispered. "Watch me roast him." He swung away from her and swaggered towards Evander. "Tell me, solemn sir," he questioned, "have you heard of one Sir Blaise Mickleton?"
Evander, whose arms were now released from bondage by Garlinge and Clupp, made a gesture of absolute acquiescence. "I am very sure I should have joined my men," he answered, calmly. Brilliana rounded on him triumphant. "Then you are a prisoner of war, fairly taken. Let me have no more words."
AEneas, speaking from the deck of one of his ships, and holding in his hand an olive branch, the emblem of peace, replied, saying, "You see before you sons of Troy, and enemies of the Latians, who have declared war against us. We seek King Evander. Bear him these tidings, and say to him that we have come asking for his alliance in arms."
"Come, you Roundpoll," he continued "come, you Geneva mumbler, here is a cup for you to wash down the dust of your dry thoughts. Drink, I give you 'The King." 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.
Brilliana was pertinacious. "If you were a King's man would you applaud me?" "If I were a King's man," Evander confessed, "I could not choose but applaud you." "But being a Puritan?" Brilliana persisted. "Why," said Evander, "being a Puritan, I must ask you, were you just to your victims?" Brilliana swept them away disdainfully.
The war was at an end, on the fifteenth day after Paullus had assumed the command; all Macedonia submitted in two days. But he himself put to death one of these, Evander of Crete, who was to be called to account as instigator of the attempted assassination of Eumenes; and then the king's pages and his last comrades also deserted him.
As she read, the dour face of Rufus brightened, and he rubbed his hands in satisfaction at the close. "By the Lord, an honest thought," he chuckled. "Swing Randolph, swing rat-face." Evander smiled disdainfully. "I am no spy," he asserted, firmly, "and by the laws of war you have no right to my life." Brilliana turned on him tauntingly.
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