There was a loud, scuffling noise without, as of the trampling of
many feet and the inarticulate growlings of wild beasts. Then Clupp
entered the room, clasping in his mighty arms the long body of Master
Paul Hungerford. He was followed by Garlinge, who was performing the
like embracive office for the short body of Master Peter Rainham. The
two angry gentlemen plunged and struggled impotently to free
themselves from their guardians and hurl themselves at each other's
throats. They might as well have tried to free themselves from clamps
of iron. To the master-muscled Garlinge and Clupp--a strong Gyas, a
strong Cloanthes, no less--they were no more difficult to restrain
than would have been a brace of puling babes. Even their speech was
not free to make amends for their captivity, for they were so brimful
of choler and had so roared and shrieked their rage ere this that the
torrent of their fury spent itself in vacant mouthings and
splutterings. Sir Blaise eyed the brawlers with exceeding disfavor.
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," he entreated, "be calm, I beg of you."
At the sound of his voice the disputants found theirs, or rather
found themselves restored to command over human speech. Each turned
towards Sir Blaise, swaying over the clasped arms of his captor.
"Sir Blaise," screamed Master Paul, "in the King's name I call upon
you to commit this thief to jail."
"Set that footpad in the pillory, Sir Blaise," yelled Master Peter.
Then they turned upon each other again.
"You rogue," cried Master Paul.
"You rascal," answered Master Peter.
In a second they were again struggling to get at each other, and
were, as before, imperturbably held asunder by Garlinge and Clupp.
Again Sir Blaise protested.
"Good friends, be calm, I entreat you."
"I'll cut his heart out," Peter vociferated, stabbing a dirty hand in
the direction of his enemy.
"I'll make him mincemeat," Paul promised, sawing at the air.
Sir Blaise, turning away in disgust, saw how in the garden Brilliana
was making for the house. He frowned on the malcontents.
"Hush, here comes the lady."
Even as he spoke Brilliana entered from the garden, followed by
Evander and Halfman. The girl looked as bright as sunlight as she
greeted the company.
"Good-morning, Sir Blaise; good-morning, my masters."
Then she burst out laughing at the furious faces and helpless
gesticulations of the irate claimants. Her laughter was very
delightful for most men to hear, but it goaded the squires to frenzy.
"Sir Blaise," cried Master Paul, "I call you to witness that the lady
laughs at us."
"Sir Blaise," cried Master Peter, "there stands our undoing."
Brilliana frowned a little and turned to Halfman.
"Friend," she said, "will you see order here."
"Very blithely," Halfman answered. He commanded the servants.
"You, Garlinge and Clupp, see that your prisoners keep silence."
Master Paul and Master Peter began to protest in chorus.
"We are no prison--" But they got no further, for Garlinge and Clupp
silenced them by clapping huge hands over their gaping mouths.
Brilliana gave a little sigh of relief at the welcome quiet.
"Now, Sir Blaise," she asked, "why are these gentlemen here?"
Sir Blaise made salutation and answered, "Truly, most paradisiacal
lady, these gentlemen make grave allegations that you did insidiously
incite them to the commission of a felony."
Brilliana looked from Sir Blaise to the muffled, grappled plaintiffs
and made mirthful decision.
"I represent the King here. I will try this matter."
Blaise felt bound to lodge protest against this monstrous
proposition.
"Perhaps, most Elysian of fair ladies, it would be, as one might say,
more seemly if I, as a justice of the peace--"
Brilliana daffed him down.
"Sir Blaise, we are at war now, and by your leave I will handle this
matter after my own fashion."
"I must protest," Blaise bleated, but Brilliana would not listen to
him.
"You must do nothing," she insisted, "but help me to set chairs. One
here for me, one there for you, my brother justice; one there for
Captain Cloud, who, as a stranger of distinction, shall have a seat
on the bench."
"I thank you for the honor," said Evander, watching the scene with
much entertainment. As Brilliana talked she, with Blaise and Halfman,
had been busy placing seats as she directed at the table.
"Captain Halfman," Brilliana went on, "you write a clerkly hand. Sit
you here; you shall be our clerk. Arraign the prisoners."
By this time all were seated as Brilliana had disposed; Sir Blaise
had completely surrendered his dignity to her spell. Even Halfman
found pleasure in the grotesque sham trial.
Garlinge and Clupp brought their charges down to face the newly
formed tribunal. Halfman spoke.
"Here, my lady, we have two hobs who have come to loggerheads as to
which is best disposed to the King. Garlinge, let Master Hungerford
speak." Garlinge removed his massive hand from his prisoner's mouth,
and Paul, after gaping like a fish for some seconds, gasped out,
"Lady, you know well enough how you have befooled us."
Brilliana stared upon him, bewitchingly unembarrassed by the charge.
"Manners, master," cried Halfman, angrily, "or I'll manner you."
Brilliana daintily deprecated his heat.
"Wait, wait," she said. "First of all, are you a loyal subject of the
King?"
Master Paul rubbed his chin dubiously. "That is as it may be," he
muttered.
Brilliana tapped the table. "Faint hesitation is flat treason," she
cried. Turning to Halfman, she commanded, "Write him down for a
confessed Roundhead."
Master Paul clawed towards her excitedly.
"No, no; pray you not so fast," he entreated. "I am a good King's
man."
Brilliana condescended approval.
"He amends his plea," she noted to Halfman. Master Paul went on,
fractiously,
"But that does not make me love to be plundered."
Brilliana rose and, resting the tips of her fingers on the table,
addressed Master Hungerford sternly.
"Master Hungerford, one of two things. Either you are a Roundhead, in
which case you have no rights in loyal, royal Oxfordshire--say I not
well, Sir Blaise?"
"Marvellous well," Sir Blaise assented.
"Ergo," Brilliana continued, "having no rights you have no goods,
having no goods you cannot be plundered."
"Yet I was plundered," Master Paul protested. Brilliana exorcised the
plea.
"We shall convince you to the contrary. If you are no Roundhead then
you are a stanch Cavalier, and in the King's name you confiscated
certain gear of your fellow-prisoner."
Now, while Paul was being interrogated Clupp had removed his hand
from Master Peter's mouth and contented himself with holding him
fast. Master Peter now saw an opportunity to assert himself.
"I am not a prison--" he began, but was not suffered to speak
further. Instantly Clupp's palm closed again upon the parted jaws and
reduced him to silence once more, while Brilliana went on.
"In doing which you deserved well of his Majesty."
"Ay, all was well so far," Master Paul grumbled; "but he played the
like trick upon me at your instigation."
Brilliana would not hear of it.
"You misuse speech. 'Tis no trick to serve the King. As I
understand, each of you accuses the other of robbing him."
Master Paul agreed. Master Peter, gagged behind Clupp's hand, nodded
dismally. Brilliana went on.
"This is at first blush a dilemma, but our wit makes all clear. Each
of you, avowedly in the King's name, did descend upon the dwelling of
a disaffected rebel and make certain seizures there which have been
duly sent to his Majesty. Each of you is, therefore, proved to be a
loyal subject and honorable gentleman. So far you are with me, Sir
Blaise?"
"Surely, surely," the knight agreed.
"Yet, on the other hand," continued Brilliana, "each of you accuses
the other of robbing him. Now to rob is to offend against the King's
law, to be, therefore, an enemy to the King; and an enemy to the King
is a Roundhead. Is not this well argued, Sir Blaise?"
"Socrates could not have bettered it," commended Sir Blaise.
"We arrive, therefore, at the strange conclusion," said Brilliana,
judicially, "that each of you is at the same time an honest Cavalier
and a dishonest Roundhead. Now, as no man living can be in the same
breath Cavalier and Roundhead, it follows as plainly as B follows A
that whichever one of you complains of the other is avowedly the
King's enemy and a palpable rebel."
Master Paul scratched his head.
"I do not follow your reasoning," he mumbled. Brilliana appealed to
the justice of the peace.
"Yet it is very clear. Is it not, Sir Blaise?"
"Limpidity itself," Sir Blaise approved, complacently. Brilliana
resumed.
"One or other of you is a traitor and shall be sent to Oxford in
chains, to await the King's pleasure and his own pain. I care not
which it be."
"You have set me in such a quandary," Master Paul protested, "my head
buzzes like a hive."
Brilliana directly questioned him.
"You, Master Hungerford, are you a King's man?"
Master Paul was vehement in asseveration.
"I am a King's man, hook and eye."
"Then," Brilliana assumed, "'tis Master Rainham must fare in chains
to Oxford."
Master Rainham, staring at her over Clupp's paw, had such appealing
terror in his eyes that Brilliana pitied him.
"'Tis your turn now," she said. "Let him give tongue, Clupp."
Clupp withdrew his hand and Master Rainham gurgled:
"I proclaim myself a faithful subject of the King. Let that dog trot
to Oxford."
"You matchless basilisk!" screamed Master Paul at him, and "You
damnable mandrake!" retorted Master Peter. The pair would have flown
at each other if they could have wriggled free. But as they could not
they perforce resigned themselves to hear what Brilliana would say
next.
"Why, then, it stands thus," Brilliana summed up. "This court decides
that you are both servants of the King; that you have both done the
King good service, willing and yet unwilling. I think I shall have
some little credit with the King, and I shall use it with his Majesty
by entreating him to grant the grace of knighthood to two honest
friends of mine and two honest lovers of his--Master Hungerford and
Master Rainham."
Master Paul looked at Master Peter; Master Peter looked at Master
Paul. Master Paul smiled. Master Peter smiled.
"A knighthood!"
Master Peter mumbled the word lovingly. Master Paul blew a kiss
towards Brilliana.
"Then I shall be indeed your knight," he simpered.
"Are you content?" Brilliana asked, gravely, and the two squires
answered in union,
"We are content."
"Then this worshipful court adjourns sine die. Captain Halfman, see
that our friends be refreshed ere they depart."
Halfman rose, and with a "Follow me, sirs," made for the door. Sir
Blaise stooped over Brilliana's finger-tips.
"Farewell, my lady wisdom. Solomon was not more wise nor Minos more
sapient."
"I thought you would uphold me," Brilliana replied. "Farewell."
Sir Blaise saluted Evander, who returned the salutation and quitted
the room. Master Paul, taking leave of Brilliana, whispered,
"When I am knight, you shall be my lady."
"When you are king, diddle-diddle, I shall be queen," Brilliana
laughed at him, making a reverence. He joined Halfman at the door and
Master Peter approached Brilliana.
"When I wear my new title, I will lay it at your feet," he promised,
solemnly.
"Can you not keep it in your own hands?" Brilliana questioned. She
made him a reverence, he made her his best bow and went to the door,
where Master Paul waited with Halfman. Here a point of ceremony
arose.
"After you, Sir Peter," Master Paul suggested. Master Peter fondled
the title.
"Sir Peter! It sounds nobly. Nay, after you, Sir Paul," he protested.
They were at this business so long that Halfman lost patience.
"Stand not on the order of your going," he growled between his teeth,
then grasping with an air of bluff good-fellowship an arm of either
squire, he banged them somewhat roughly together.
"Nay, arm in arm, as neighbor knights should," he suggested, and so
jostled them out of the chamber and conducted them to the buttery,
where for the next hour he diverted himself by making them very drunk
indeed.