Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-26
CHAPTER xxx,
The Court-NIartial.

The Court-Martial
1t has been the privilege of one or two
famous gardes du corps to be law unto
themselves The guard of Nassau shares
mat privilege. The inquiry, or, rather.
trial, was to be held within closed DOORS
| ana by the express order of the colonel-in-
chlef all the officers. including those Junior
10 the prisoner. were to be present. And
every olii''er present on such occasions had
the right to vote. The procedure was sim
pie w hen the witnesses had been exam
lned the accused was invited to speak in
his own defense, then the senior officer
summed up, and, lastly the officers re-
corded their votes.
Ralywoods offense had outraged the fun
damental principle of the guard the blind
self-sacrificing obedience which in trivial
as in vital matters demanded the merging
OF the private individual with hopes and
conscience of his into the body cor
porate Of the guard. With the single ex-
ceptlon OF Unfair, no man present ac
quainted with the details of Ralywood S
crime. They knew only that he had gross
~ disobeyed orders. and not only that
but had disobeyed them for the further
ance of private ambition. So the charge
against him int1mated. 1t was understood
that the accusation had been lodged by
Count Sagan, in consequence of Informal
ton received by him, and the court-martial
at once assembled to deal with the matter
The original prejudice against Rally
wood as foreigner and an interloper was
| revived, with all the more bitterness be-
cause the men had in the interval come
to respect If not to like him. They re-
scented the deception they believed to have
been practiced upon them with the rancor
of those who find they have not only been
played upon, but made tools of. Rally
wood had gained his position among them
by false Dretenses to serve his own ends
gained it to betray them.
But more than this, he had dishonored
the guard brought the first blot OF treach-
its long and J3phlerpiShpi traij-
tons. Hereditary instincts, inbred and
powerful. We're arrayed against him in the
hearts of six of his judges; in the seventh,
Count Sagan, he had to encounter the i'll
blood of a profoundly vindictive nature,
whose purpose he had crossed and baffied,
and who harbored toward him a savage
personal hatred.
1t must be understood that so far no
hint Of the arrangement with England had
been allowed to transpre. The engage
ment to be given by Nassau in return for
the promised British loan and moral sup
port was i'll train for completion, but the
final signature was not to take place till
that afternoon. Meantime the chancellor
kept still tongue in his head and waited
upon events, knowing that when all tran
spired the responsibility could be shifted
onto the shoulders of the duke 1t was a
risky game, but NJ Selpdorf had played
many another-and won them all. At the
same time. he had no intention of putting
out his hand to save Hollywood whose dis
appearance from the scheme of earthly af-
fairs would remove an awkward cause of
| disagreement from the range of his own
| family circle. Yet it must be admitted that
VI. Selpdorf really regretted that the neces-
| sites of the case required the sacrifice of
! the Englishman, for whom his former abb
| stract liking remained entirely unaltered.
The doors IF the great mess room We're
| closed. for within them the courtmartial
| was In progress. AT the central table
| seven men with the marks of power upon
| them were gathered. Above them the torn
| banners of the regiment hung in the red
| gloom of the dome, but about the men
| themselves the sray-white light of winter
| day fell from the riverward windows. 1t
| seemed to dull even the red glow of the
| hangings. tat cold light, which lent to the
faces of those assembled a strange effect
| of oallor.
place associated with voices and the
movement and sounds of life has a weird
/ and impressive effect. Enter an empty
| church and you are chilled; hear will
| read In room which you connect with
laughter and the genial routine of every
| day events, and the uncanny quiet, falling
away from the single voice, benumbs you.
Thus in the mess room, where music and
laughter and the hubbub of mems talking
usually resounded, the unwonted stiffness
broken only by the piercing wall of the tsa
struck cold and heavy upon the senses.
Count Sagan, his big chest covered with
gold lace and orders, doomed at the head
OF the table, Wellenloup and Ulm to his
right and left. Adiron. Unfair, Adolf and
Ill seated according to their rank
AT the foot of the table, in the uniform of
the guard, but without a sword, stood the
prisoner.
one man present was a complete stranger
| TO Ha!lyWood-Maj. Tim, who had just re-
| turned from leave. and whose keen ewes
| set in thin shaven face scrutinized him
coldly. Behind Tins bald forehead dweIt
| most of the sagacity and discretion Of the
guard. strongly as his prejudices were ex-
cited, he could not avoid being struck by
the bearing of the prisoner
Ihere was cold erceness about the men
OF the guard, but Hollywood stood nm
| moved under the many hostile ewes.
court-martial, where the prisoner 10
| condemned, is perhaps the most awful SCENE
| 1t contains within itself elements that edge
| It's painfulness. The judges WELD NOT onIv
| the power of death, but the power of n1If.
| ing man to utter shame. The prisoners
who stand at such tribunal NAV he cred
| TIED with the capability, given to them by
| training II not by nature, of feeling shame
| And the capability of suffering shame is as
dlSunct a quality as the sense of honor
| Count Sasan giared round the table and
the aspect of his colleagues pleased him
they feIt under his rough imagination like
sword whose temper the fighter is sure
| OF, There was horrible energy, a furious
| reientlessness about his very attitude and
| ringing in his voice that drove every word
| of his accusation into and throneh h;S
| hearers. AS president he put questions to
| the prisoner, who answered them I'M
| moved.
| ItdiiyWoou 1FOnteu them calm and SOL
| dierllke. the picture of gallant despair
He felt as though he stood clear of his
| life 1t was lived and the end in sight
| His position was hard, but he seemed to
| be ready to say amen to whatever the
| fates might send. He had no thought of
| struggling for life and love- He was far
| otherwise. He was one whose love is hope
| less, whose loved one is lost as though in
death. and who lives through the present
dream according to an ideal, the ideal of
| being worthy of the vanished past
Unziar alone looked stonily blank but
| the other grim faces round the table re-
garded Hollywood with a sort of satisfac.
| ton. He had sinned against them. but
| they were about to make him pay the high
| est human penalty for his sin. Yet to Ulm
| his demeanor was suggestive. There was
something eloquent of singleness of heart
and nobleness that seemed to buoy up this
! man with his broken honor There was no
parade of outraged innocence, nothing but
| a fearless reserve.
Hollywood hardly heard the grave voices
that discussed his fate, stirring as they
did so the clogging quiet which hung with
such solemn effect over the historic room
! Those lofty wallis had never before
te>o 3ed 10 similar charge or q like dis