"
"How, sir, do you mean to say that the prisoner did not sleep upon
his post?"
"Certainly I do not; on the contrary, I grant that he did sleep upon
his post, and yet I maintain that in doing so he was not guilty!"
"Major Greyson plays with us," said the President.
"By no means, sir! I never was in more solemn earnest than at
present! Your honor, the President and gentlemen judges of the
court, as I am not counsel for the prisoner, nor civil officer, nor
lawyer, of whose interference courts-martial are proverbially
jealous, I beg you will permit me to say a few words in support, or
at least, I will say, in explanation of the vote which you have
characterized as an opinion in opposition to fact and law, and
unprecedented in the whole history of courts-martial."
"Yes, it is! it is!" said General W., shifting uneasily in his seat.
"You heard the defense of the prisoner," continued Herbert; "you
heard the narrative of his wrongs and sufferings, to the truth of
which his every aspect bore testimony. I will not here express a
judgment as to the motives that prompted his superior officers, I
will merely advert to the facts themselves, in order to prove that
the prisoner, under the circumstances, could not, with his human
power, have done otherwise than he did."
"Sir, if the prisoner considered himself wronged by his captain,
which is very doubtful, he could have appealed to the Colonel of his
Regiment!"
"Sir, the Articles of War accord him that privilege.
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