ing is fighting. Ride,
gallant Rufus, come back with loyal laurels and the flags of canting
rebels, and see how I shall welcome you."

Rufus caught her hands.

"Must I be content with this?" he asked, hotly.

"You must be content with this," Brilliana replied, coolly. "Here
come your brothers-in-arms."

The doors of the banqueting-hall opened, and Fawley, Radlett, Bardon,
Ingrow, and Halfman came in, all brighter for wine and food.

"'Tis boot and saddle, Rufus," Fawley cried.

"I am yours," Rufus answered. He bowed over Brilliana's fingers.
"Farewell, lady."

One and all they turned and left her, and as they tramped into the
air the chorus of the Cavalier song came back to her happy ears.

"And we will sing, boys, God bless the King, boys,
Cast up your hats, and cry Vive le Roy."

XIII

A GILDED CAGE

Evander awoke in a strange world steeped in lavender. It was long
since he had lain so soft, long since he had drifted out of dreams to
breathe lavender. His pleased senses, less alert for very ease and
pleasure, denied him immediate knowledge of his whereabouts. He saw a
fair room, well appointed; he welcomed the morning sunlight through
delicate, unfamiliar curtains; he questioned the insisting
deliciousness of lavender. Where was he? What was this chamber of
calm panelled in pale oak? It was not Leyden, it was not Cambridge;
then in a flash he knew. It was the west room at Harby--Harby where
he lay a prisoner on parole, Harby which he had tried to take and
which had ended by taking him. He leaped from his bed instantly, well
awake, well alive, and gaining the window peeped through the parted
curtains. He looked out across the moat on the terrace to the rear of
Harby, beyond which lay the spacious gardens for which Harby was held
famous. His men had held that terrace twenty-four hours earlier; now
they had vanished as if they had never been, save for the testimony
of the trampled grass. In their place a solitary figure sat on a
baluster drinking smoke contemplatively from a pipe of clay. Evander
knew him for Halfman--knew, too, that Halfman watched there for him,
for the moment the curtains parted the sitter rose and, advancing
towards the edge of the moat, waved and voiced salutation to Evander.

"Give you good-morning, gallant capitano," he called. "Jocund day
stands on the top of yon high eastern hill. Will it please your
worthiness to be stirring?"

"Very willingly," Evander calle