What the result would have been, had not Halloway, in
the strong excitement of his feelings, sprung to his feet
upon the coffin, uttering the exclamation of triumph
recorded in the last pages of our first volume, is scarcely
doubtful. However much the governor might have contemned
and slighted a credulity in which he in no way participated
himself, he had too much discrimination not to perceive,
that to have persevered in the capital punishment would
have been to have rendered himself personally obnoxious
to the comrades of the condemned, whose dispirited air
and sullen mien, he clearly saw, denounced the punishment
as one of unnecessary rigour. The haughty commander was
not one to be intimidated by manifestations of discontent;
neither was he one to brook a spirit of insubordination,
however forcibly supported; but he had too much experience
and military judgment, not to determine that this was
riot a moment, by foregoing an act of compulsory clemency,
to instil divisions in the garrison, when the safety of
all so much depended on the cheerfulness and unanimity
with which they lent themselves to the arduous duties of
defence.
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