Margaret was alone when Ulster came, standing before the table, while all about the small, dark, silent room swept the roar of the great panic. The two Ministers bowed low as they entered her presence, but her eyes were upon the Chancellor, so, instead of bending his head, he looked at her wondering, and laid a roll of parchment upon the table. Then he drew back from before her stare, and bowed profoundly.
"Your Majesty," he muttered.
"You may speak."
Before her staring eyes the Chancellor stammered, "My colleagues and I—and I have begged this audience, madam, on business of most desperate urgency."
"What is this business?"
"It is the will of the Parliament that Mr. John Brand be attainted of treason felony. A Bill has been passed, and requires only the royal fiat. La Reine le veult?"
"My Lords," the Queen spoke slowly, monotonously, staring all the time into the Chancellor's eyes; "I send this matter back to an Imperial Parliament which has had no time to think."
"Is it possible," cried the Chancellor, indignant, "that your Majesty sets the whole Empire at defiance?"
"Is that a threat?"
"No threat," he answered, furiously; "but a reminder that the Royal Prerogative fell on the scaffold of King Charles the First. Under the guidance of her Ministers, the Queen will not expose herself to deposition."