"Don't preach at me, Brand," said the other roughly. "Ah, forgive me! If you only knew--you've never seen her, have you? But if you saw the Queen, you would understand, for she is brave as a lion, stainless as the lilies, her voice makes us mad with love; yet she is our Lady, and we scarcely dare to look her in the face. And she is to be sold to infamy! Oh, God, what can I do, what can I do to save her?" "Lord Sydney, you forget yourself." My lord looked at him, his eyes narrowing, his mouth hardened, his whole face freezing with self-suppression. "Yes, that is so, Mr. Brand. Back to the facts then," he laughed nervously, "we have to fight the Chancellor, we have to fight the Government. Then there is Russia to fight, and Europe." Brand went to the window, and there stood looking out. Beyond the pavement and the trees rose all that city which his fathers and himself had built upon the storm-swept moors of a wild headland, his walls the cliffs, his moat the Atlantic; and this bastion of our island stronghold was not unworthy to guard the British Realm. Until that day we knew of Lyonesse as a strong man, and an humble, so we thought; for in the twelve years since he came to power, the hard-hitting, rough-fighting master of industry had never lost his habit of grave self-command, or let any breath of passion sway his justice. A man must be true to win the confidence of friends, but great to win the trust of enemies. Now the deeps were moved, and elemental forces stirred within him. Henceforward he was to suffer, to rejoice, to pity, to slay within no boundaries of self-discipline, to love with irresistible passion, to strike with overwhelming rage. One does not praise or blame the hurricane. Brand came back to the desk, sat down in his chair, and laid his hand upon the Russian papers. "One would think," he said, "that the man who owned these papers, owned this Chancellor. He obeyed Russia--will he fight me?" "There is the whole party of the capitalists," answered the other ruefully, at which Brand was aroused. "Will they fight me?" he said. "But the allies will declare war!" "Am I not Lyonesse!" "You cannot fight three nations." "My father warned me," said Brand, thoughtfully, "and somehow I always knew that sooner or later I must take the field to save Britain. No man has seen etheric power in action." Sydney breathed hard. "You called it once the Chariot of the Sun." "The Chariot of the Sun. Yes. Heaven send I may never have to use etheric power for war." III OUR LADY THE QUEEN In the wondrous romance of our Island history the reigns of three English Queens stand out with singular splendour. First came Elizabeth the Great, then Victoria the Good, and now in the fulness of time reigns Margaret the Fair.