een saddled with a duty and he
must perform it. He would do so conscientiously to the best of his
ability, for he seems to have been a conscientious man; but he could not
be expected to put his heart into the matter, since he was not inflamed
by any zeal born of conviction, nor had he any of the incentives of a
civil advocate to sway his audience by all possible means.

Nevertheless the facts themselves, properly marshalled, made up a
dangerous case against the prisoner. Major Swan began by dwelling upon
the evidence of motive: there had been a quarrel, or the beginnings of
a quarrel, between the deceased and the accused; the deceased had shown
himself affronted, and had been heard quite unequivocally to say that
the matter could not be left at the stage at which it was interrupted
at Sir Terence's luncheon-table. Major Swan dwelt for a moment upon
the grounds of the quarrel. They were by no means discreditable to the
accused, but it was singularly unfortunate, ironical almost, that he
should have involved himself in a duel as a result of his out-spoken
defence of a wise measure which made duelling in the British army a
capital offence. With that, however, he did not think that the court
was immediately concerned. By the duel itself the accused had offended
against the recent enactment, and, moreover, the irregular manner in
which the encounter had been conducted, without seconds or witnesses,
rendered the accused answerable to a charge of murder, if it could be
proved that he actually did engage and kill the deceased. Major Swan
thought this could be proved.

The irregularity of the meeting must be assigned to the enactment
against which it offended. A matter which, under other circumstances,
considering the good character borne by Captain Tremayne, would
have been quite incomprehensible, was, he thought, under existing
circumstances, perfectly clear. Because Captain Tremayne could not have
found any friend to act for him, he was forced to forgo witnesses to the
encounter, and because of the consequences to himself of the encounter's
becoming known, he was forced to contrive that it should be held
in secret. They knew, from the evidence of Colonel Grant and Major
Carruthers, that the meeting was desired by Count Samoval, and they were
therefore entitled to assume that, recognising the conditions arising
out of the recent enactment, the deceased had consented that the meeting
should take place in this irregular fashion