was bent upon him, and no one breathed a word, he rose upon his
feet and addressed the company.

"I understand that I am in the presence of a military court, which has
been summoned for the purpose of inquiring into certain offences, of the
nature of which I have not yet had the good fortune to be informed,
except in so far as I am given to infer that they purport of treason. I
ask if this be true."

The presiding officer bowed his head in token of assent, and then
presented a paper, which he described as containing the specification of
charges.

"As an officer of the American army, and the citizen of an independent
republic," continued Butler, "I protest against any accountability to
this tribunal; and, with this protest, I publish my wrongs in the face
of these witnesses, and declare them to arise out of facts disgraceful
to the character of an honorable nation. I have been drawn by treachery
into an ambuscade, overpowered by numbers, insulted and abused by
ruffians. I wish I could say that these outrages were practised at the
mere motion of the coarse banditti themselves who assailed me; but their
manifest subserviency to a plan, the object of which was to take my
life, leaves me no room to doubt that they have been in the employ and
have acted under the orders of a more responsible head"--

"Keep your temper," interrupted Innis, calmly. "Something is to be
allowed to the excited feelings of one suddenly arrested in the height
of a bold adventure, and the court would, therefore, treat your
expression of such feelings at this moment with lenity. You will,
however, consult your own welfare, by giving your thoughts to the
charges against you, and sparing yourself the labor of this useless
vituperation. Read that paper, and speak to its contents. We will hear
you patiently and impartially."

"Sir, it can avail me nothing to read it. Let it allege what it may, the
trial, under present circumstances, will be but a mockery. By the
chances of war, my life is in your hands; it is an idle ceremony and
waste of time to call in aid the forms of justice, to do that which you
have the power to do, without insulting Heaven by affecting to assume
one of its attributes."

"That we pause to inquire," replied Innis, "is a boon of mercy to you.
The offence of rank rebellion which you and all your fellow-madmen have
confessed, by taking up arms against your king, carries with it the last
degree of punishment. If, waiving our righ