“I am your servant, none loyaller,” Brilliana answered, boldly; “but I am a woman, and I plead for the man I love.”
“If you were truly loyal,” Charles commented, “you could not love a traitor.”
Brilliana pressed her hands tightly against her breast and her face flushed.
“Captain Cloud is not a traitor. He is honest before God.”
Charles admired her pertinacity. Here was a woman who would not lightly lose heart or change purpose.
“I will not wrangle with you,” he said. “I think the gentleman deserves death. But because I know very well what it is to love truly, why, I will let you save him if you can.”
Brilliana’s voice was charged with gratitude. “Oh, your Majesty is always noble. But how?”
Charles looked at her fixedly, touching his chin with the feather of his quill. “Thuswise—only thuswise. You will persuade Captain Cloud to return to his allegiance.”
Brilliana’s gratitude ebbed and her voice hardened. “I know he will never change sides.”
An enigmatic smile passed over the fretful face of the King. “I think so, too,” he agreed, and turned again to his papers. But Brilliana was not to be so rebuffed. Coming a little nearer to Charles, she fell on her knees and extended her hands in supplication. “Sire, my lover’s life!”