The Snare Part 30

It included, amongst others, the adjutant-general, Sir Terence O'Moy; Colonel Fletcher of the Engineers, who had come in haste from Torres Vedras, having first desired to be included in the board chiefly on account of his friends.h.i.+p for Tremayne; and Major Carruthers. The judge-advocate's task of conducting the case against the prisoner was deputed to the quartermaster of Tremayne's own regiment, Major Swan.

The court sat in a long, cheerless hall, once the refectory of the Franciscans, who had been the first tenants of Monsanto. It was stone-flagged, the windows set at a height of some ten feet from the ground, the bare, whitewashed walls hung with very wooden portraits of long-departed kings and princes of Portugal who had been benefactors of the order.

The court occupied the abbot's table, which was set on a shallow dais at the end of the room--a table of stone with a covering of oak, over which a green cloth had been spread; the officers--twelve in number, besides the president--sat with their backs to the wall, immediately under the inevitable picture of the Last Supper.

The court being sworn, Captain Tremayne was brought in by the provost-marshal's guard and given a stool placed immediately before and a few paces from the table. Perfectly calm and imperturbable, he saluted the court, and sat down, his guards remaining some paces behind him.

He had declined all offers of a friend to represent him, on the grounds that the court could not possibly afford him a case to answer.

The president, a florid, rather pompous man, who spoke with a faint lisp, cleared his throat and read the charge against the prisoner from the sheet with which he had been supplied--the charge of having violated the recent enactment against duelling made by the Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's forces in the Peninsula, in so far as he had fought: a duel with Count Jeronymo de Samoval, and of murder in so far as that duel, conducted in an irregular manner, and without any witnesses, had resulted in the death of the said Count Jeronymo de Samoval.

"How say you, then, Captain Tremayne?" the judge-advocate challenged him. "Are you guilty of these charges or not guilty?"

"Not guilty."

The president sat back and observed the prisoner with an eye that was officially benign. Tremayne's glance considered the court and met the concerned and grave regard of his colonel, of his friend Carruthers and of two other friends of his own regiment, the cold indifference of three officers of the Fourteenth--then stationed in Lisbon with whom he was unacquainted, and the utter inscrutability of O'Moy's rather lowering glance, which profoundly intrigued him, and, lastly, the official hostility of Major Swan, who was on his feet setting forth the case against him. Of the remaining members of the court he took no heed.

From the opening address it did not seem to Captain Tremayne as if this case--which had been hurriedly prepared by Major Swan, chiefly that same morning would amount to very much. Briefly the major announced his intention of establis.h.i.+ng to the satisfaction of the court how, on the night of the 28th of May, the prisoner, in flagrant violation of an enactment in a general order of the 26th of that same month, had engaged in a duel with Count Jeronymo de Samoval, a peer of the realm of Portugal.

Followed a short statement of the case from the point of view of the prosecution, an antic.i.p.ation of the evidence to be called, upon which the major thought--rather sanguinely, opined Captain Tremayne--to convict the accused. He concluded with an a.s.surance that the evidence of the prisoner's guilt was as nearly direct as evidence could be in a case of murder.

The first witness called was the butler, Mullins. He was introduced by the sergeant-major stationed by the double doors at the end of the hall from the ante-room where the witnesses commanded to be present were in waiting.

Mullins, rather less venerable than usual, as a consequence of agitation and affliction on behalf of Captain Tremayne, to whom he was attached, stated nervously the facts within his knowledge. He was occupied with the silver in his pantry, having remained up in case Sir Terence, who was working late in his study, should require anything before going to bed. Sir Terence called him, and--

"At what time did Sir Terence call you?" asked the major.

"It was ten minutes past twelve, sir, by the clock in my pantry."

"You are sure that the clock was right?"

"Quite sure, sir; I had put it right that same evening."

"Very well, then. Sir Terence called you at ten minutes past twelve.

Pray continue."

"He gave me a letter addressed to the Commissary-general. 'Take that,'

says he, 'to the sergeant of the guard at once, and tell him to be sure that it is forwarded to the Commissary-General first thing in the morning.' I went out at once, and on the lawn in the quadrangle I saw a man lying on his back on the gra.s.s and another man kneeling beside him.

I ran across to them. It was a bright, moonlight night--bright as day it was, and you could see quite clear. The gentleman that was kneeling looks up, at me, and I sees it was Captain Tremayne, sir. 'What's this, Captain dear?' says I. 'It's Count Samoval, and he's kilt,' says he, 'for G.o.d's sake, go and fetch somebody.' So I ran back to tell Sir Terence, and Sir Terence he came out with me, and mighty startled he was at what he found there. 'What's happened?'says he, and the captain answers him just as he had answered me: 'It's Count Samoval, and he's kilt. 'But how did it happen?' says Sir Terence. 'Sure and that's just what I want to know,' says the captain; 'I found him here.' And then Sir Terence turns to me, and 'Mullins,' says he, 'just fetch the guard,' and of course, I went at once."

"Was there any one else present?" asked the prosecutor.

"Not in the quadrangle, sir. But Lady O'Moy was on the balcony of her room all the time."

"Well, then, you fetched the guard. What happened when you returned?"

"Colonel Grant arrived, sir, and I understood him to say that he had been following Count Samoval..."

"Which way did Colonel Grant come?" put in the president.

"By the gate from the terrace."

"Was it open?"

"No, sir. Sir Terence himself went to open the wicket when Colonel Grant knocked."

Sir Harry nodded and Major Swan resumed the examination.

"What happened next?"

"Sir Terence ordered the captain under arrest."

"Did Captain Tremayne submit at once?"

"Well, not quite at once, sir. He naturally made some bother. 'Good G.o.d!' he says, 'ye'll never be after thinking I kilt him? I tell you I just found him here like this.' 'What were ye doing here, then?' says Sir Terence. 'I was coming to see you,' says the captain. 'What about?'

says Sir Terence, and with that the captain got angry, said he refused to be cross-questioned and went off to report himself under arrest as he was bid."

That closed the butler's evidence, and the judge-advocate looked across at the prisoner.

"Have you any questions for the witness?" he inquired.

"None," replied Captain Tremayne. "He has given his evidence very faithfully and accurately."

Major Swan invited the court to question the witness in any manner it considered desirable. The only one to avail himself of the invitation was Carruthers, who, out of his friends.h.i.+p and concern for Tremayne--and a conviction of Tremayne's innocence begotten chiefly by that friends.h.i.+p desired to bring out anything that might tell in his favour.

"What was Captain Tremayne's bearing when he spoke to you and to Sir Terence?"

"Quite as usual, sir."

"He was quite calm, not at all perturbed?"

"Devil a bit; not until Sir Terence ordered him under arrest, and then he was a little hot."

"Thank you, Mullins."

Dismissed by the court, Mullins would have departed, but that upon being told by the sergeant-major that he was at liberty to remain if he chose he found a seat on one of the benches ranged against the wall.

The next witness was Sir Terence, who gave his evidence quietly from his place at the board immediately on the president's right. He was pale, but otherwise composed, and the first part of his evidence was no more than a confirmation of what Mullins had said, an exact and strictly truthful statement of the circ.u.mstances as he had witnessed them from the moment when Mullins had summoned him.

"You were present, I believe, Sir Terence," said Major Swan, "at an altercation that arose on the previous day between Captain Tremayne and the deceased?"

"Yes. It happened at lunch here at Monsanto."

"What was the nature of it?"

"Count Samoval permitted himself to criticise adversely Lord Wellington's enactment against duelling, and Captain Tremayne defended it. They became a little heated, and the fact was mentioned that Samoval himself was a famous swordsman. Captain Tremayne made the remark that famous swordsmen were required by Count Samoval's country to, save it from invasion. The remark was offensive to the deceased, and although the subject was abandoned out of regard for the ladies present, it was abandoned on a threat from Count Samoval to continue it later."

"Was it so continued?"