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Updated: July 5, 2025
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.
"In the King's name," said Brilliana, heroically, "go forth and ransack this rebellious gentleman's house for arms." Master Peter snorted sceptically. "Arms! I think he hath none but an old rusty fire-lock and a breast and back that have seen better days." Brilliana beamed on him, a yielding sphinx. "But then, supposing you should pick up some plate on the way, some gold plate by chance "
His own face was in shadow and the chatelaine could not distinguish its features. "Have I the honor to address the Lady Brilliana Harby?" he asked. "I am the Lady Brilliana Harby," the girl answered. "What is your business here?" "I come, madam," Evander replied, "a servant of the Parliament and of the English people, to safeguard this mansion in their name."
He turned towards the doors of the banqueting-room with the famished gentlemen at his heels; then, noticing that Sir Rufus remained with Brilliana, he stopped and questioned him. "You, sir, will you not eat?" Rufus answered him with an impatience that was almost anger. "No, no," he said; "I have no hunger. Stay your stomachs swiftly, friends."
"Tiffany is a minx, but I am an honest woman; and as I am an honest woman, there are honest qualities in this honest Puritan." Brilliana knew as much herself and fretted at the knowledge. It cut against the grain of her heart to admit that a rebel could have any redemption by gifts.
A curious smile reigned over the delicate face as Brilliana made her proposal, and lingered in whimsical doubt for the response. The response came quickly. Again Evander was saying Brilliana nay. "I cannot that, neither, dear woman, for to do this would be to make you disloyal to your King." "Oh, you split straws!" she cried, wildly.
Not a man of the little household, nor a woman, offered to budge. Perhaps they did not care very much about the quarrel, but they all loved very dearly their wild, high-spirited young mistress, and it was "God save Brilliana!" they were thinking while they shouted "God save the King!"
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.
Even a less-experienced soldier could have seen from the sure way in which Brilliana handled her weapon that his life was in real peril, but he paid no more heed to her menace than if she was threatening him with her glove or her fan. "Fighting outside!" he cried. Turning to the woman he asked, with a fierceness that contrasted with his previous calm, "Who is the traitor here?"
Brilliana had forgotten Evander in the exhilaration of her relief. But now that he had come into her mind again, so with his image had flooded in again all the prejudices he provoked, the scorn, the hatred. "That plea cannot release you," she answered, hotly. "Your time was up, your sword was drawn; I am very sure you would have joined your men."
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