- end_line
- 2473
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2420
- text
- policy adopted in those tragedies of the palace which have occurred more
than once in the capital founded by Peter the Barbarian, great chiefly
by his crimes.
The case was such that fain would the _Indomitable’s_ captain have
deferred taking any action whatever respecting it further than to keep
the foretopman a close prisoner till the ship rejoined the squadron, and
then submitting the matter to the judgment of his admiral.
But a true military officer is in one particular like a true monk. Not
with more of self-abnegation will the latter keep his vows of monastic
obedience than the former his vows of allegiance to martial duty.
Feeling that unless quick action was taken on it, the deed of the
foretopman, as soon as it should be known on the gun-decks, would tend
to awaken any slumbering embers of the Nore among the crew, a sense of
the urgency of the case overruled in Captain Vere every other
consideration. But though a conscientious disciplinarian he was no lover
of authority for mere authority’s sake. Very far was he from embracing
opportunities for monopolising to himself the perils of moral
responsibility, none at least that could properly be referred to an
official superior, or shared with him by his official equals, or even
subordinates. So thinking, he was glad it would not be at variance with
usage to turn the matter over to a summary court of his own officers,
reserving to himself, as the one on whom the ultimate accountability
would rest, the right of maintaining a supervision of it, or formally or
informally interposing at need. Accordingly a drum-head court was
summarily convened, he electing the individuals composing it--the first
lieutenant, the captain of marines, and the sailing-master.
In associating an officer of marines with the sea-lieutenant in a case
having to do with a sailor, the commander perhaps deviated from general
custom. He was prompted thereto by the circumstance that he took that
soldier to be a judicious person, thoughtful and not altogether
incapable of grappling with a difficult case unprecedented in his prior
experience. Yet even as to him he was not without some latent misgiving,
for withal he was an extremely good-natured man, an enjoyer of his
dinner, a sound sleeper, and inclined to obesity. The sort of man who,
though he would always maintain his manhood in battle, might not prove
altogether reliable in a moral dilemma involving aught of the tragic. As
to the first lieutenant and the sailing-master, Captain Vere could not
but be aware that though honest natures, of approved gallantry upon
occasion, their intelligence was mostly confined to the matter of active
seamanship, and the fighting demands of their profession. The court was
held in the same cabin where the unfortunate affair had taken place.
This cabin, the commander’s, embraced the entire area under the
poop-deck. Aft, and on either side, was a small state-room--the one room
temporarily a jail, and the other a dead-house--and a yet smaller
compartment leaving a space between, expanding forward into a goodly
oblong of length coinciding with the ship’s beam. A skylight of moderate
dimensions was overhead, and at each end of the oblong space were two
sashed port-hole windows easily convertible back into embrasures for
short carronades.
- title
- Chunk 21