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- 2529
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2466
- text
- 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.
All being quickly in readiness, Billy Budd was arraigned, Captain Vere
necessarily appearing as the sole witness in the case, and as such
temporarily sinking his rank, though singularly maintaining it in a
matter apparently trivial, namely, that he testified from the ship’s
weather-side, with that object having caused the court to sit on the
lee-side. Concisely he narrated all that had led up to the catastrophe,
omitting nothing in Claggart’s accusation, and deposing as to the manner
in which the prisoner had received it. At this testimony the three
officers glanced with no little surprise at Billy Budd, the last man
they would have suspected, either of mutinous design alleged by
Claggart, or of the undeniable deed he himself had done. The first
lieutenant taking judicial primary, and turning toward the prisoner,
said, ‘Captain Vere has spoken. Is it or is it not as Captain Vere
says?’ In response came syllables not so much impeded in the utterance
as might have been anticipated. They were these:--
‘Captain Vere tells the truth. It is just as Captain Vere says, but it
is not as the master-at-arms said. I have eaten the King’s bread, and I
am true to the King.’
‘I believe you, my man,’ said the witness, his voice indicating a
suppressed emotion not otherwise betrayed.
‘God will bless you for that, your honour!’ not without stammering, said
Billy, and all but broke down. But immediately was recalled to
self-control by another question, to which with the same emotional
difficulty of utterance he said, ‘No, there was no malice between us. I
never bore malice against the master-at-arms. I am sorry that he is
dead. I did not mean to kill him. Could I have used my tongue I would
not have struck him. But he foully lied to my face, and in the presence
of my captain, and I had to say something, and I could only say it with
a blow. God help me!’
In the impulsive above-board manner of the frank one the court saw
confirmed all that was implied in words that just previously had
perplexed them coming as they did from the testifier to the tragedy, and
promptly following Billy’s impassioned disclaimer of mutinous
intent--Captain Vere’s words, ‘I believe you, my man.’
Next, it was asked of him whether he knew of or suspected aught
savouring of incipient trouble (meaning mutiny, though the explicit term
was avoided) going on in any section of the ship’s company.
The reply lingered. This was naturally imputed by the court to the same
vocal embarrassment which had retarded or obstructed previous answers.
But in main it was otherwise here; the question immediately recalling to
Billy’s mind the interview with the afterguardsman in the fore-chains.
But an innate repugnance to playing a part at all approaching that of an
informer against one’s own shipmates--the same erring sense of
uninstructed honour which had stood in the way of his reporting the
matter at the time, though as a loyal man-of-war’s man it was incumbent
on him, and failure so to do it charged against him and proven, would
have subjected him to the heaviest of penalties. This, with the blind
feeling now his, that nothing really was being hatched, prevailed with
him. When the answer came it was a negative.
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