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- 2449
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- 2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z
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- 2389
- text
- from every English sea-commander two qualities not readily
interfusable--prudence and rigour. Moreover, there was something crucial
in the case.
In the jugglery of circumstances preceding and attending the event on
board the _Indomitable_, and in the light of that martial code whereby
it was formally to be judged, innocence and guilt, personified in
Claggart and Budd, in effect changed places.
In the legal view, the apparent victim of the tragedy was he who had
sought to victimise a man blameless; and the indisputable deed of the
latter, navally regarded, constituted the most heinous of military
crimes. Yet more. The essential right and wrong involved in the matter,
the clearer that might be, so much the worse for the responsibility of a
loyal sea-commander, inasmuch as he was authorised to determine the
matter on that primitive legal basis.
Small wonder then that the _Indomitable’s_ captain, though in general a
man of rigid decision, felt that circumspectness not less than
promptitude was necessary. Until he could decide upon his course, and in
each detail, and not only so, but until the concluding measure was upon
the point of being enacted, he deemed it advisable, in view of all the
circumstances, to guard as much as possible against publicity. Here he
may or may not have erred. Certain it is, however, that subsequently in
the confidential talk of more than one or two gun-rooms and cabins he
was not a little criticised by some officers, a fact imputed by his
friends, and vehemently by his cousin Jack Denton, to professional
jealousy of Starry Vere. Some imaginative ground for invidious comment
there was. The maintenance of secrecy in the matter, the confining all
knowledge of it for a time to the place where the homicide occurred--the
quarter-deck cabin; in these particulars lurked some resemblance to the
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.
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