"Stay, sir," sternly observed the governor, addressing
the president; "you have not read ALL the charges."
Captain Blessington took up the paper from the table, on
which he had carelessly thrown it, after reading the
accusations above detailed, and perceived, for the first
time, that a portion had been doubled back. His eye now
glanced over a third charge, which had previously escaped
his attention.
"Prisoner," he pursued, after the lapse of a minute,
"there is a third charge against you, viz. for having,
on the night of the --th Sept. 1763, suffered Captain
De Haldimar to unclose the gate of the fortress, and,
accompanied by his servant, private Harry Donellan, to
pass your post without the sanction of the governor, such
conduct being in direct violation of a standing order of
the garrison, and punishable with death."
The prisoner started. "What!" he exclaimed, his cheek
paling for the first time with momentary apprehension;
"is this voluntary confession of my own to be turned into
a charge that threatens my life? Colonel de Haldimar, is
the explanation which I gave you only this very hour,
and in private, to be made the public instrument of my
condemnation? Am I to die because I had not firmness to
resist the prayer of my captain and of your son, Colonel
de Haldimar?"
The president looked towards the governor, but a significant
motion of the head was the only reply; he proceeded,--
"Prisoner Halloway, what plead you to this charge? Guilty,
or not guilty?"
"I see plainly," said Halloway, after the pause of a
minute, during which he appeared to be summoning all his
energies to his aid; "I see plainly that it is useless
to strive against my fate.
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