Books: Capitola The Madcap
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Emma D. E. N. Southworth >> Capitola The Madcap
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Traverse was interrupted several times in the course of his
narrative by the President, General W., a severe martinet, who
reminded him that an attempt to criminate his superior Officers
would only injure his cause before the court.
Traverse, bowing, as in duty bound to the President at every fresh
interruption, nevertheless proceeded straight on with his narrative
to its conclusion.
The defence being closed, the Judge Advocate arose, as was his
privilege, to have the last word. He stated that if the prisoner had
been oppressed or aggrieved by his superior officer, his remedy lay
in the 35th of the Articles of War, providing that any soldier who
shall feel himself wronged by his captain shall complain thereof to
the Colonel of his Regiment.
To this the prisoner begged to reply that he had considered the
Colonel of his Regiment his personal enemy, and as such could have
little hope of the issue, even if he had had opportunity afforded
him, of appealing to that authority.
The Judge Advocate expressed his belief that this complaint was
vexatious and groundless.
And here the evidence was closed, the prosecutor, prisoner and
witnesses dismissed, and the court adjourned to meet again to
deliberate with closed doors.
It was a period of awful suspense with Traverse Rocke. The prospect
seemed dark for him.
The fact of the offence and the law affixing the penalty of death to
that offence was established, and as the Judge Advocate truly said,
nothing remained but for the court to find their verdict in
accordance to both.
Extenuating circumstances there were certainly; but extenuating
circumstances were seldom admitted in courts-martial, the law and
practice of which were severe to the extent of cruelty.
Another circumstance against him was the fact that it did not
require an unanimous vote to render a legal verdict, but that if a
majority of two-thirds should vote for conviction, the fate of the
prisoner would be sealed. Traverse had but one friend in the court,
and what could his single voice do against so many? Apparently
nothing: yet, as the prisoner on leaving the court-room, raised his
eyes to that friend, Herbert Greyson returned the look with a glance
of more than encouragement--of triumph.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE VERDICT.
We must not make a scare-crow of the law,
Setting it up to frighten birds of prey;
And let it keep one shape till custom makes it,
Their perch and not their terror.
--SHAKESPEARE.
The members of a court-martial sit in the double capacity of jurors
and judges; as jurors they find the facts, and as judges they award
the punishment. Yet their session with closed doors was without the
solemn formality that the uninitiated might have supposed to attend
a grave deliberation upon a matter of guilt or innocence involving a
question of life or death.
No sooner were the doors closed that shut out the "vulgar" crowd,
than the "high and mighty" officials immediately fell into easy
attitudes, and disengaged conversation upon the weather, the
climate, yesterday's dinner at General Cushion's quarters, the
claret, the cigars and the Mexican signoritas.
They were presently recalled from this easy chat by the President, a
severe disciplinarian, who reminded them rather sharply of the
business upon which they had convened.
The officers immediately wheeled themselves around in the chairs,
facing the table, and fell into order.
The Judge Advocate seated himself at his detached stand, opened his
book, called the attention of the court, and commenced and read over
the whole record of the evidence and the proceedings up to this
time.
The President then said:
"For my own part, gentlemen, I think this quite a simple matter,
requiring but little deliberation. 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. This was
his first appearance in the character of juror and judge; he was
literally unaccustomed to public speaking, and did not hazard a
reply.
"Has any other gentleman any views to advance before we proceed to a
general ballot?" inquired the President.
Several of the officers whispered together, and then some one
replied that there seemed to be no reason why the vote should not be
immediately taken.
Herbert Greyson remained perfectly silent. Why he did not speak
then, in reply to this adjuration--why, indeed, he had not spoken
before, in support of Lieutenant Lovel's views in favor of his
friend, I do not know to this day, though I mean to ask him the
first time I have the opportunity. Perhaps he wished to "draw the
enemy's fire," perhaps he was inclined to dramatic effects; but
whatever might have been the motive, he continued silent, offering
no obstacle to the immediate taking of the vote.
The Judge Advocate then called the court to order for the taking of
the ballot, and proceeded to question the members in turn,
commencing with the youngest.
"How say you, Lieutenant Lovel, is the prisoner on trial guilty or
not guilty of the offence laid to his charge?"
"Guilty," responded the young officer, as his eyes filled with tears
of pity for the other young life against which he had felt obliged
to record this vote.
"If that is the opinion of one who seems friendly to him, what will
be the votes of the other stern judges?" said Herbert Greyson to
himself, in dismay.
"What say you, Lieutenant Adams--is the prisoner guilty or not
guilty?" said the Judge Advocate, proceeding with the ballot.
"Guilty!"
"Lieutenant Cragin?"
"Guilty!"
"Lieutenant Evans?"
"Guilty!"
"Lieutenant Goffe?"
"Guilty!"
"Lieutenant Hesse?"
"Guilty!"
"Captain Kingsley?"
"Guilty!"
"Captain McConkey?"
"Guilty!"
"Captain Lucas?"
"Guilty!"
"Captain O'Donnelly?"
"Guilty!"
"Captain Rozencrantz?"
"Guilty!"
"Major Greyson?"
"NOT GUILTY!"
Every officer sprang to his feet and gazed in astonishment,
consternation and indignant inquiry upon the renderer of this
unprecedented vote.
The President was the first to speak, breaking out with:
"Sir! Major Greyson! your vote, sir, in direct defiance of the fact
and the law upon it, is unprecedented, sir, in the whole history of
court-martial!"
"I record it as uttered, nevertheless," replied Herbert.
"And your oath, sir! What becomes of your oath as a judge, of this
court?"
"I regard my oath in my vote!"
"What, sir?" inquired Captain McConkey, "do you mean to say that you
have rendered that vote in accordance with the facts elicited in
evidence, as by your oath you were bound to do?"
"Yes."
"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. But is it ever
taken advantage of? Is there a case on record where a private
soldier ventures to make a dangerous enemy of his immediate superior
by complaining of his Captain to his Colonel? Nor in this case would
it have been of the least use, inasmuch as this soldier had well-
founded reasons for believing the Colonel of his regiment his
personal enemy, and the Captain as the instrument of this enmity."
"And you, Major Greyson, do you coincide in the opinion of the
prisoner? Do you think that there could have been anything in common
between the Colonel of the regiment and the poor private in the
ranks, to explain such an equalizing sentiment as enmity?" inquired
Captain O'Donnelly.
"I answer distinctly, yes, sir! In the first place, this poor
private is a young gentleman of birth and education, the heir of one
of the most important estates in Virginia, and the betrothed of one
of the most lovely girls in the world. In both these capacities he
has stood in the way of Colonel Le Noir, standing between him and
the estate on the one hand, and between him and the young lady on
the other. He has disappointed Le Noir both in love and ambition.
And he has thereby made an enemy of the man who has, besides, the
nearest interest in his destruction. Gentlemen, what I say now in
the absence of Colonel Le Noir, I am prepared to repeat in his
presence, and maintain at the proper time and place."
"But how came this young gentleman of birth and expectations to be
found in the ranks?" inquired Captain Rosencrantz.
"How came we to have headstrong sons of wealthy parents, fast young
men of fortune, and runaway students from the universities and
colleges of the United States in our ranks? In a burst of boyish
impatience the youth enlisted. Destiny gave him as the Colonel of
his regiment his mortal enemy. Colonel Le Noir found in Captain
Zuten a ready instrument for his malignity. And between them both
they have done all that could possibly be effected to defeat the
good fortune and insure the destruction of Traverse Rocke. And I
repeat, gentlemen, that what I feel constrained to affirm here in
the absence of those officers, I shall assuredly reassert and
maintain in their presence, upon the proper occasion. In fact I
shall bring formal charges against Colonel Le Noir and Captain
Zuten, of conduct unworthy of officers and gentlemen!"
"But it seems to me that this is not directly to the point at
issue," said Captain Kingsley.
"On the contrary, sir, it is the point, the whole point, and only
point, as you shall presently see by attending to the facts that I
shall recall to your memory. You and all present must, then, see
that there was a deliberate purpose to effect the ruin of this young
man. He is accused of having been found sleeping on his post, the
penalty of which, in time of war, is death. Now listen to the
history of the days that preceded his fault, and tell me if human
nature could have withstood the trial?"
"Sunday night was the last of repose to the prisoner until Friday
morning, when he was found asleep on his post."
"Monday night he was sent with the reconnoitering party to Casa-de-
Mata."
"Tuesday he was sent with the officer that carried our General's
expostulation to Santa Anna. At night he was put on guard."
"Wednesday he was sent with another party to protect a band of
emigrants crossing the marshes. At night he was sent with still
another party to reconnoiter Molina-del-Rey."
"Thursday he was sent in attendance upon the officer that carried
despatches to General Quitman, and did not return until after
midnight, when, thoroughly worn out, driven indeed to the extreme
degree of mortal endurance, he was again on a sultry, oppressive
night, in a still, solitary place, set on guard where a few hours
later he was found asleep upon his post--by whom? The Colonel of his
regiment and the Captain of his company, who seemed bent upon his
ruin--as I hold myself bound to establish before another court-
martial."
"This result had been intended from the first! If five nights' loss
of sleep would not have effected this, fifteen probably would; if
fifteen would not, thirty would; or if thirty wouldn't sixty would!-
-and all this Captain Zuten had the power to enforce until his
doomed victim should fall into the hands of the provost-marshal, and
into the arms of death!"
"And now, gentlemen, in view of all these circumstances, I ask you--
was Traverse Rocke guilty of wilful neglect of duty in dropping
asleep on his post? And I move for a reconsideration, and a new
ballot!"
"Such a thing is without precedent, sir! These mitigating
circumstances may be brought to bear on the Commander-in-Chief, and
may be embodied in a recommendation to mercy! They should have no
weight in the finding of the verdict," said the President, "which
should be in accordance with the fact and the law."
"And with justice and humanity! to find a verdict against this young
man would be to place an unmerited brand upon his spotless name,
that no after clemency of the Executive could wipe out! Gentlemen,
will you do this! No! I am sure that you will not! And again I move
for a new ballot! "
"I second the motion!" said Lieutenant Lovel, rising quite
encouraged to believe in his own first instincts, which had been so
favorable.
"Gentlemen," said the President sternly, "this thing is without
precedent! In all the annals of courts-martial, with out
precedent.!"
"Then, if there is no such precedent, it is quite time that such a
one were established, so that the iron car of literal law should not
always roll over and crush justice! Gentlemen, shall we have a new
ballot?"
"Yes! yes! yes!" were the answers.
"It is irregular! It is illegal! It is unprecedented! A new ballot?
Never heard of such a thing in forty years of military life! Lord
bless my soul, what is the service coming to!"
"A new ballot:! a new ballot! a new ballot!" was the unanimous cry.
The President groaned in spirit, and recorded a vow never to forgive
Herbert Greyson for this departure from routine.
The new ballot demanded by acclamation had to be held.
The Judge Advocate called the court to order and began anew. The
votes were taken as before, commencing with the young lieutenant,
who now responded sonorously:
"Not guilty!"
And so it ran around the entire circle.
"Not guilty!" "Not guilty!" "Not guilty!" were the hearty responses
of the court.
The acquittal was unanimous. The verdict was recorded.
The doors were then thrown open to the public, and the prisoner
called in and publicly discharged from custody.
The court then adjourned.
Traverse Rocke threw himself upon the bosom of his friend,
exclaiming in a broken voice:
"I cannot sufficiently thank you! My dear mother and Clara will do
that!"
"Nonsense!" said Herbett laughing; "didn't I tell you that the Lord
reigns, and the devil is a fool? This is only the beginning of
victories!"
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE END OF THE WAR
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums changed to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged war hath smoothed his wrinkled front,
And now instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
--SHAKESPEARE.
Ten days later Molina-del-Rey, Casa-de-Mata, and Chapultepec had
fallen! The United States forces occupied the city of Mexico,
General Scott was in the Grand Plaza, and the American standard
waved above the capital of the Montezumas!
Let those who have a taste for swords and muskets, drums and
trumpets, blood and fire, describe the desperate battles and
splendid victories that led to this final magnificent triumph!
My business lies with the persons of our story, to illustrate whom I
must pick out a few isolated instances of heroism in this glorious
campaign.
Herbert Greyson's division was a portion of the gallant Eleventh
that charged the Mexican batteries on Molina-del-Rey. He covered his
name with glory, and qualified himself to merit the command of the
regiment, which he afterwards received.
Traverse Rocke fought like a young Paladin. When they were marching
into the very mouths of the cannon they were vomiting fire upon
them, and when the young ensign of his company was struck down
before him, Traverse Rocke took the colors from his falling hand,
and crying "Victory!" pressed onward and upward over the dead and
the dying, and springing upon one of the guns which continued to
belch forth fire, he thrice waved the flag over his head and then
planted it upon the battery. Captain Zuten fell in the subsequent
assault upon Chapultepec.
Colonel Le Noir entered the city of Mexico with the victorious army,
but on the subsequent day, being engaged in a street skirmish with
the leperos, or liberated convicts, he fell mortally wounded by a
copper bullet, and he was now dying by inches at his quarters near
the Grand Cathedral.
It was on the evening of the 20th of September, six days from the
triumphant entry of General Scott into the capital, that Major
Greyson was seated at supper at his quarters, with some of his
brother officers, when an orderly entered and handed a note to
Herbert, which proved to be a communication from the surgeon of
their regiment, begging him to repair without delay to the quarters
of Colonel Le Noir, who, being in extremity, desired to see him.
Major Greyson immediately excused himself to his company, and
repaired to the quarters of the dying man.
He found Colonel Le Noir stretched upon his bed in a state of
extreme exhaustion and attended by the surgeon and chaplain of his
regiment.
As Herbert advanced to the side of his bed, Le Noir stretched out
his pale hand and said:
"You bear no grudge against a dying man, Greyson?"
"Certainly not," said Herbert, "especially when he proposes doing
the right thing, as I judge you do, from the fact of your sending
for me."
"Yes, I do; I do!" replied Le Noir, pressing the hand that Herbert's
kindness of heart could not withhold.
Le Noir then beckoned the minister to hand him two sealed packets,
which he took and laid upon the bed before him.
Then taking up the larger of the two packets, he placed it in the
hands of Herbert Greyson, saying:
"There, Greyson, I wish you to hand that to your friend, young
Rocke, who has received his colors, I understand?"
"Yes, he has now the rank of ensign."
"Then give this parcel into the hands of Ensign Rocke, with the
request, that being freely yielded up, they may not be used in any
manner to harass the last hours of a dying man."
"I promise, on the part of my noble young friend, that they shall
not be so used," said Herbert as he took possession of the parcel.
Le Noir then took up the second packet, which was much smaller, but
much more firmly secured, than the first, being in an envelope of
parchment, sealed with three great seals.
Le Noir held it in his hand for a moment, gazing from the surgeon to
the chaplain, and thence down upon the mysterious packet, while
spasms of pain convulsed his countenance. At length he spoke:
"This second packet, Greyson, contains a--well, I may as well call
it a narrative. I confide it to your care upon these conditions--
that it shall not be opened until after my death and funeral, and
that, when it has served its purpose of restitution, it may be, as
far as possible, forgotten. Will you promise me this?"
"On my honor, yes," responded the young man, as he received the
second parcel.
"This is all I have to say, except this--that you seemed to me, upon
every account, the most proper person to whom I could confide this
trust. I thank you for accepting it, and I believe that I may safely
promise that you will find the contents of the smaller packet of
great importance and advantage to yourself and those dear to you."
Herbert bowed in silence.
"That is all, good-by. I wish now to be alone with our chaplain,"
said Colonel Le Noir, extending his hand.
Herbert pressed that wasted hand; silently sent up a prayer for the
dying wrong-doer, bowed gravely and withdrew.
It was almost eight o'clock, and Herbert thought that he would
scarcely have time to find Traverse before the drum should beat to
quarters.
He was more fortunate than he had anticipated, for he had scarcely
turned the Grand Cathedral when he came full upon the young ensign.
"Ah! Traverse, I am very glad to meet you! I was just going to look
for you. Come immediately to my rooms, for I have a very important
communication to make to you. Colonel Le Noir is supposed to be
dying. He has given me a parcel to be handed to you, which I
shrewdly suspect to contain your intercepted correspondence for the
last two years," said Herbert.
Traverse started and gazed upon his friend in amazement, and was
about to express his astonishment, when Herbert, seeing others
approach, drew the arm of his friend within his own, and they
hurried silently on toward Major Greyson's quarters.
They had scarcely got in and closed the door and stricken a light
before Traverse exclaimed impatiently:
"Give it me!" and almost snatched the parcel from Herbert's hands.
"Whist! don't be impatient! I dare say it is all stale news!" said
Herbert, as he yielded up the prize.
They sat down together on each side of a little stand supporting a
light.
Herbert watched with sympathetic interest while Traverse tore open
the envelope and examined its contents.
They were, as Herbert had anticipated, letters from the mother and
the betrothed of Traverse--letters that had arrived and been
intercepted, from time to time, for the preceding two years.
There were blanks, also, directed in a hand strange to Traverse, but
familiar to Herbert as that of Old Hurricane, and those blanks
inclosed drafts upon a New Orleans bank, payable to the order of
Traverse Rocke.
Traverse pushed all these latter aside with scarcely a glance and
not a word of inquiry, and began eagerly to examine the long-
desired, long-withheld letters from the dear ones at home.
His cheek flamed to see that every seal was broken, and the fresh
aroma of every heart-breathed word inhaled by others, before they
reached himself.
"Look here, Herbert! look here! Is not this insufferable? Every fond
word of my mother, every delicate and sacred expression of--of
regard from Clara, all read by the profane eyes of that man!"
"That man is on his deathbed, Traverse, and you must forgive him! He
has restored your letters."
"Yes, after their sacred privacy has been profaned! Oh!"
Traverse handed his mother's letters over to Herbert, that his
foster brother might read them, but Clara's "sacred epistles" were
kept to himself.
"What are you laughing at?" inquired Traverse, looking up from his
page, and detecting Herbert with a smile upon his face.
"I am thinking that you are not as generous as you were some few
years since, when you would have given me Clara herself; for now you
will not even let me have a glimpse of her letters!"
"Have they not been already sufficiently published?" said Traverse,
with an almost girlish smile and blush.
When those cherished letters were all read and put away, Traverse
stooped down and "fished up" from amidst envelopes, strings and
waste paper another set of letters which proved to be the blanks
inclosing the checks, of various dates, which Herbert recognized as
coming anonymously from Old Hurricane.
"What in the world is the meaning of all this, Herbert? Have I a
nabob uncle turned up anywhere, do you think? Look here!--a hundred
dollars--and a fifty, and another--all drafts upon the Planters'
Bank, New Orleans, drawn in my favor and signed by Largent Dor,
bankers!--I, that haven't had five dollars at a time to call my own
for the last two years! Here, Herbert, give me a good, sharp pinch
to wake me up! I may be sleeping on my post again?" said Traverse in
perplexity.
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