Here is the fact of the offence
proved, and here is the law upon that offence clearly defined.
Nothing seems to remain for us to do but to bring in a verdict in
accordance with the law and the fact."
Several of the elder officers and sterner disciplinarians agreed
with the President, who now said,
"I move that the vote be immediately made upon this question."
To this, also, the elder officers assented. And the Judge Advocate
was preparing to take the ballot, when one of the younger members
arose and said:
"Mr. President and gentlemen, there are mitigating circumstances
attending this offence, which, in my opinion, should be duly weighed
before making up our ballot."
"Lieutenant Lovel, when your hair has grown white in the service of
your country, as mine has, and when your skin is mottled with the
scars of a score of well-fought fields, you will find your soft
theories corrected by hard experience, and you will know that in the
case of a sentinel steeping upon, his post there can be no
mitigating circumstances; that nothing can palliate such flagrant
and dangerous neglect, involving the safety of the whole army; a
crime that martial law and custom have very necessarily made
punishable by death," said the President, sternly.
The young lieutenant sat down abashed, under the impression that he
had betrayed himself into some act of gross impropriety.
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