with them for their allegiance.

She stood so for a moment, quite still; then she stretched out both arms
to them with a sudden impulse.

"_My people!_" she said brokenly.

Her voice thrilled them, and they answered with a burst of loyalty warm
enough to screen the silence of those who took no part in the grateful
chorus.

She only bowed her head in acknowledgment, struggling with her emotion:
then moving a little aside, she laid her hand upon the arm of the
alabaster seat that Janus had been wont to use,--it was filled with
lilies in memory of the infant King and guarded by the group of
white-clad pages who should have been his knights. And now, as if the
touch gave her courage, her voice came clear and unwavering.

"_My people!_" she said again, lingering on the words as if the claim
were inexpressibly dear to her; "because ye were _his_ people--my
husband's--the King's: because ye should have been _his_--my little,
little son's;--_because they have left me their work to do_."

She paused for a moment to steady her voice, for a sudden desperate
sense of loneliness and self-pity had overpowered her as she looked into
the sea of faces turned to hers and saw--with the intense spiritual
insight granted to the few in crucial moments--the conflicting emotions
with which they regarded her.

Then, as swiftly, there flashed into her recollection the memory of the
scene in Venice, on the day of her betrothal, when there had been
revealed to her the sacredness of the tie possible between a Queen and
her people--a vision of the holy, surging, passionate mother-love,
adequate to all sacrifice. Surely for these days of her desolation that
early vision had been granted; and with the force of a heavenly message
its memory now brought her strength.

The appeal in her eyes deepened, and the lines of her mouth grew more
tender, while she held herself firmly erect,--as one accustomed to
rule,--and the tones of her voice took on the accent of unquestioned
authority.

"Dear people of Cyprus," she said quite calmly, "I _need_ your
love--that together we may rule wisely."

She had not dreamed that ever again she should taste so dear a joy as
came with the sound of this tumultuous response to her appeal; for the
hearts of the nobles had warmed to her, and a wave of compunction and
loyalty swept the assembly.

As she took her seat upon the throne and gave the signal to open the
court, the light in her face was a radiance beautif