y likes and my dislikes--as you have. Bear with me a little."

Reist hesitated. There entered a messenger for the King.

"Your Majesty," he announced, "the Englishman Brand, is at the palace.
He desires an immediate audience."

Ughtred took up his cloak.

"I fear that it is ill news," he said. "Follow me, Reist."

CHAPTER XXVII

"Your Majesty----"

The King waved his hand.

"You can leave that out, Brand. Speak to me plainly. You look as
though you had something important to say."

"I have indeed!" Brand answered.

He glanced around cautiously. They were in the chamber used for
meetings of the Privy Council--a great room with stained glass
windows, fluted pillars supporting a vaulted roof, stone walls, with
here and there a covering of tapestry. A collection of ancient arms
was hung over the great chimneypiece. In the centre of the floor stood
a round table of solid oak. A bad room for confidences this, in which
the slightest whisper awoke curious echoes. The King noticed Brand's
hesitation, and divined its cause.

"Come this way, Brand," he directed. "Reist is close behind. He will
keep out all intruders."

They passed into the King's private study, a small octagonal room on
the ground floor of one of the towers. The King threw himself into an
easy-chair, and pointed towards another, but Brand remained standing.

"Well?"

"Your Majesty, the kingdom of Theos is in danger!"

"I know it," the King answered, calmly. "There are traitors in the
city itself. I have felt sure of it for some time."

"The danger is urgent!"

"Go on."

"I have acquired a good deal of information during the last few days,"
Brand said. "Some of it has come through a source which I may not
reveal--piecemeal, and in disconnected fragments. You will have to
take a good deal on trust."

"I believe in you, Brand."

"First of all, then," Brand said, "you are aware of what has been
going on in the Press all over Europe, in Russia, Germany, and
France?"

The King nodded.

"A widespread conspiracy," he said, "to vilify me and my methods and
my government. I have been represented to Europe as a harebrained,
scheming, military adventurer, idle, worthless, a drunkard, and heaps
of other things. I know it, Brand. I know another thing, too. I know
that one paper in England, through thick and thin, has been my friend.
I do not deserve all the good which it has spoken of me. On the other
hand, I shall always regard as one of