ed. "I must be
stirring. I should like him to know that I killed him."

"If I find any breath in him I will tell him," Halfman affirmed.
"Your honor over-refines your pleasant purpose. The pith is that he
be killed. Remember the western gate."

In another moment Halfman was alone, listening to the sound of
spurred heels on the stairway, as Sir Rufus hastened to join the
King.

"Love of woman leads us to strange issues," he said to himself, with
a wintry smile. "Cavalier, Puritan, and poor Jack here, we all love
the same lady, and here be two of us clapping palms together to kill
the third."

XXXI

HALFMAN DISPOSES

Brilliana came in from the garden. Halfman heard her step and turned.
She was pale with many emotions; he never had seen her more
beautiful.

"The King has gone, friend," she said; "God bless him for his
clemency."

"My heart does not sing because a Puritan lives," Halfman answered,
sourly. He stared into the fire again and saw burning towns between
the dogs. Brilliana paused for a moment and then came a little closer
to him.

"We have ever been friends," she said, softly. There was a note of
timidity in her voice, new to Halfman, and he turned in surprise.

"Indeed," he said, roundly.

"We have been fellow-soldiers," Brilliana went on, still with that
curious hesitancy that sat so strangely upon her. "We have shared a
siege. I have a secret to tell you."

Halfman felt a sudden uncanny warning of danger. "A secret," he
repeated, staring at her.

Brilliana was outblushing all things red--peony, poppy, flamingo,
anything.

"You have always loved me, Hobbin?" she asked, half timorously.

"I have always loved you," he answered, slowly, with a rigid face.

"Then you will be glad of what I have to tell," she said. "There will
be no change here. For I love this gentleman even as this gentleman
loves me, and we are to wed when this meddling war is ended."

"You love him?" Halfman echoed, dully. "You wed an enemy to the
King?"

Brilliana sighed.

"Love is the greatest power in all the world," she said; "greater
than kings, greater than emperors, greater than popes. But I will wed
no enemy to the King. If these wars were to endure forever, then
forever my dear friend and I would remain unwed and bear our single
souls to heaven."

Her voice was low and dreary; suddenly it brightened.

"But these wars will not endure forever. The King will be in London
in a few days; the Parliament