"Even a cannibal might love his country. Brand, I'm in horrible
trouble, and I've come to you for help."
"You've come to me for help. Go on, old chap."
"In politics you can accuse a man without any feeling of hatred?"
"I would not have him butchered."
"Not even if your opponent granted the Peacock Throne to Ali of
Haidar?"
Brand's face flashed with anger. "My friend, spare me all mention of
that," he said. "Is it a kind thing, Lord Sydney, to tear the old
wound open?"
"Does it hurt me less? I'd go on if it killed both of us, and you
shall listen."
"Perhaps you don't know," answered Brand, "that my young brother saw
his wife crucified, before the rebels gouged out his eyes and burned
him."
"Would you treat the man as a mere political opponent who granted the
Peacock Throne to Ali of Haidar?"
"The Viceroy died by his own hand. He is beyond our vengeance."
"Vengeance?" cried Sydney, "my words bite deep. Is vengeance in your
code of political courtesy? I tell you the man who granted Prince
Ali's claims is still alive, within the reach of vengeance. He drove
the Viceroy to suicide, and thought that under heaven there was no
witness left to rise against him."
"That is beyond belief; there are limits even to treachery."
"Are there such limits? The man who granted Prince Ali's claims
received not thirty pieces of silver, but two million pounds. He
lives."
Brand turned away his face.
"Prince Ali was an agent, Brand, an agent of Russia, and the bribe of
two million pounds was Russian money. The man who received that
price of blood has not hanged himself, neither were his eyes gouged
out, nor was he burned like your brother. He bought with it the
Chancellorship of the British Empire. He is my father."
Brand's iron-hard face was sterner than ever now. "Have you gone
mad?" he asked.
"Prove me insane or dreaming, or bewitched. Prove my father an
honest man, and England safe. It would be all right then, Brand. Do
you think it is a little thing to tell; that it is easily said? I,
Ulster's son, that was a gentleman, am now a spy. His shame has
tainted me, and so the leprosy will spread from generation to
generation. I suppose," he added, "you think I'm hysterical."
Leaning forward, Brand laid his hand upon Lord Sydney's shoulder.
"There's some mistake," he said.
"I tell you that my father, Ulster, is sold to Russia. He has forced
upon the Government a degrading treaty."
Brand was silent. "He has given our Lady, the Queen, to that drunken
beast Alexander."
Brand was silent.
"He has divulged the Formula of the Fleets!"
"Sydney!" Brand rose overthrowing his chair, then withholding
himself by main force, sat heavily upon the desk. "Go on," he said
hoarsely, "these statements need to be proved."
"Time enough for that," Lord Sydney flung himself beside Brand's
knees upon the desk, and buried his face in his arms. "I've lived in
a dream world," he said in bitterness, "a world which I built for
myself, where one's father could be respected, one's mother honoured.
All things were as they should be; one could play the game----" He
looked up, and his eyes were reddened. "I was a boy in that fool's
paradise--but now, ah, well," he threw his head back, looking out at
Brand with half-closed eyes, "I suppose I've got to be a man." Then
he told Brand of the Emperor's visit to Lord Ulster, and how he had
overheard what passed between them.
"Have you proof?" asked the American.
"I realized," said Sydney, "that I must have proof. I watched my
father's face from day to day, and when he returned to town, I went
with him. For once he was glad of my company, while with treason
upon treason he bought the papers which Russia held against him. By
his face I knew when the Government consented to the Treaty, when
they agreed to the Russian marriage, when he betrayed the Formula.
He had earned the papers then. I don't think he ever slept until
last night, until he had paid the price. I was alone with him last
night when the Emperor's messenger came. We had finished dinner, the
long, dull dinner, the servants cleared out, and Ulster had his wine.
The messenger was shown in, bearing a despatch box, and I did the
honours, while Ulster unlocked the thing. I saw him take out a
sealed package and a letter which he tried to conceal from me. The
messenger drank our health, and Ulster escorted him to the door. I
had time to slip a drug into Ulster's wine.
"Yes, he slept almost before he had read the Emperor's letter. It
was a queer letter. Once a month hereafter His Grace would receive a
messenger and to him display this package with unbroken seals--on
pain of instant vengeance. A little of that treatment would tame any
Chancellor. The sense of being watched, the horror lest the package
miscarry, the fear ever with him, the curse that must be borne in
silence year by year, then death and exposure. It would have driven
him stark staring mad! I have relieved my father of that curse, his
spies are chasing me to Constantinople. Here is the package--the
proof of what I have said, and you shall break the seals."
Brand opened the Russian papers, the transactions between Ulster and
Prince Ali, which page by page he examined. He filled a briar pipe,
lighted, and smoked it through before he spoke.
"I think," he said at last, "that this is a strong chain of evidence,
but only in converging evidence is there proof. There is ground here
for a charge against the Duke, not for his conviction; and all his
friends would rally to his defence, making him stronger than ever.
The value of these papers is his evident fear. Now as to the secret
treaty."
Lord Sydney produced the Draft, which the master read.
"There is ground here for an attack upon the Government. And as to
the Formula?"
"Only my word," answered Sydney. "You doubt my word!"
"Not I. But imagine this case tried by the House of Lords, the
judges being Ulster's friends with the fear of their own downfall if
they failed him."
Lord Sydney rose distracted and paced the floor, unnerved, broken.
"And you are going to fail me?" he cried.
"Easy, boy, easy," said Brand, relighting his pipe, "that kind of
play never scored at school. The games must be played more soberly
to be won."
"Don't preach at me, Brand," said the other roughly. "Ah, forgive
me! If you only knew--you've never seen her, have you? But if you
saw the Queen, you would understand, for she is brave as a lion,
stainless as the lilies, her voice makes us mad with love; yet she is
our Lady, and we scarcely dare to look her in the face. And she is
to be sold to infamy! Oh, God, what can I do, what can I do to save
her?"
"Lord Sydney, you forget yourself."
My lord looked at him, his eyes narrowing, his mouth hardened, his
whole face freezing with self-suppression.
"Yes, that is so, Mr. Brand. Back to the facts then," he laughed
nervously, "we have to fight the Chancellor, we have to fight the
Government. Then there is Russia to fight, and Europe."
Brand went to the window, and there stood looking out. Beyond the
pavement and the trees rose all that city which his fathers and
himself had built upon the storm-swept moors of a wild headland, his
walls the cliffs, his moat the Atlantic; and this bastion of our
island stronghold was not unworthy to guard the British Realm.
Until that day we knew of Lyonesse as a strong man, and an humble, so
we thought; for in the twelve years since he came to power, the
hard-hitting, rough-fighting master of industry had never lost his
habit of grave self-command, or let any breath of passion sway his
justice. A man must be true to win the confidence of friends, but
great to win the trust of enemies.
Now the deeps were moved, and elemental forces stirred within him.
Henceforward he was to suffer, to rejoice, to pity, to slay within no
boundaries of self-discipline, to love with irresistible passion, to
strike with overwhelming rage. One does not praise or blame the
hurricane.
Brand came back to the desk, sat down in his chair, and laid his hand
upon the Russian papers.
"One would think," he said, "that the man who owned these papers,
owned this Chancellor. He obeyed Russia--will he fight me?"
"There is the whole party of the capitalists," answered the other
ruefully, at which Brand was aroused.
"Will they fight me?" he said.
"But the allies will declare war!"
"Am I not Lyonesse!"
"You cannot fight three nations."
"My father warned me," said Brand, thoughtfully, "and somehow I
always knew that sooner or later I must take the field to save
Britain. No man has seen etheric power in action."