But however these considerations might have
failed in effect, there was another which, as a soldier,
he could not wholly overlook. Although he had offered
no comment on the extraordinary recommendation to mercy
annexed to the sentence of the prisoner, it had had a
certain weight with him; and he felt, all absolute even
as he was, he could not, without exciting strong
dissatisfaction among his troops, refuse attention to a
document so powerfully worded, and bearing the signature
and approval of so old and valued an officer as Captain
Blessington. His determination, therefore, had been
formed, even before his visit to his son, to act as
circumstances might require; and, in the mean while, he
commanded every preparation for the execution to be made.
In causing a strong detachment to be marched to the
conspicuous point chosen for his purpose, he had acted
from a conviction of the necessity of showing the enemy
the treason of the soldier had been detected; reserving
to himself the determination of carrying the sentence
into full effect, or pardoning the condemned, as the
event might warrant.
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