"Let them come," said Margaret, and when the doors had closed, she told Mr. Brand to wait in the royal box. "Leave me," she said, and with a smile held out her hand to him. "Whether it is life, Mr. Brand, or death, you will know that I tried to do right?" "I am your servant," he answered, "in life or death," and bending down he kissed our Lady's hand. 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." "My Lords,"--her Majesty turned upon the attendant Ministers--"you have heard me say that this Bill concerning Mr. Brand must be again considered before we make it an Act of Parliament. You have heard my Chancellor threaten deposition, even death, as though the Queen could be bullied with the blustering of so pitiful a coward. As a woman I demand your protection from this man, as your Sovereign we command you to obey." The Chancellor tried to interfere. "Silence," cried Margaret. "Silence! I, the Queen, am speaking, and I, not the Parliament, am England. My Lords, I charge this man, my subject, with being a paid spy and agent of Russia. He has attempted to imprison Mr. Brand because he is loyal and has come to my defence. He has betrayed the Formula of my Fleets. I command you to seize the Duke of Ulster, and to hold him as my prisoner. You shall disobey me at your peril. Arrest that man!" But these Ministers, supposing Margaret to be insane, backed slowly out from her presence. X THE DAWN OF THE TERROR