Brilliana had much ado to keep from laughing in the face of the
uncouth genuflector, but she kept a grave face and uttered grave
complaint.
"Master Hungerford! Master Hungerford! They tell me sad tales of you.
Though you are as wealthy as wealthy you will not mend the King's
exchequer."
Master Paul gave vent to such a wail as a dog makes when one treads
unaware upon his tail, and clapped his hands about piteously.
"I wealthy! Forgive you, lady, for listening to such tales. I am not
so 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 as
if he sought to come to some surface and breathe free.
"Great land, lady--great land, if you will, but little cash. My land
holds every penny I get together. Why, 'tis well known in the country
that I buy land for a thousand pound every year, wherefore I can
never 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 need
and will oblige hereafter those that oblige him now. His Majesty has
made me a kind of viceroy here in Oxford. I begin to think that you
incline to the Parliament, Master Paul. If I thought that, I would
hold 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 a
chest of his that is stuffed with gold pieces. Were he a true man he
would shift his treasure into the King's sack, as I would if I had
such a store."
A fantastic possibility danced into Brilliana's brain. She glanced to
where Halfman stood moodily ruminating on the method he would employ
to loosen Master Hungerford's purse-strings if he had him at his
mercy in a taken town. Brilliana could not read his thoughts, which
was as well, but she gave him a glance which stirred him to alertness
as she resumed her interrogatory of her niggardly neighbor.
"Why, then, Master Hungerford, if he be as you say, he is little
better, if better at all, than a Parliament man, and, therefore, our
common enemy."
Master Paul rubbed his lean hands in delight.
"It is indeed as you say," he affirmed, with a sour smile that sat
very 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 no
cost to yourself, if you were to lay hands on this treasure in the
King's name."
Master Paul's alarm asserted itself in a shriek.
"Lordamercy, lady, what of the law of the land? Would you have me
turn 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 choose
to serve the King and please me." This last was said with an accent
of disdain which made the unhappy squire shiver. "I was in error, so
no more words of it. Good-day to you."
And my Lady Brilliana made Master Paul a courtesy so contemptuous and
a gesture of dismissal so decisive that Master Hungerford's terror
deepened. If the King's cause were to go well, if the lady indeed had
favor with his Majesty, to offend her would be verily a piece of
mortal 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 your
very good servant. I would serve your will in this if I could but
march with the law."
Brilliana jumped at his concession. She saw Tiffany in the distance
crossing the garden towards her and guessed that she came to announce
the arrival of the other miser; so she was eager to clinch the
business with Master Hungerford.
"Why, so you ever shall, with the King's law. What more easy? I
represent the King in this district; this fellow is a suspected
rebel; I give you leave to search his house for arms."