s, and thus enabled yourself to
collect information relative to the condition of the royal forces, which
it was doubtless your purpose to use to our detriment. The court, for a
moment, might have led you to entertain hope that they were satisfied
that in this charge you had been wronged. The simple, affecting, and,
no doubt, true narrative made by the miller's daughter produced a
momentary sensation that was too powerful to be combated. That
narrative, however, does not relieve you from the effect of your own
confessions, since both may be true, and the charge still remain
unimpaired against you.

"The offence of breaking your parole and infringing the terms of the
capitulation of Charleston, is open to a legal doubt, and, therefore, in
tenderness to you, has not been pressed; although the court think, that
the very circumstance of its doubtful character should have inculcated
upon you the necessity of the most scrupulous avoidance of service in
the conquered province.

"The last charge against you is fully proved. Not a word of counter
evidence has been offered. Strictly speaking, by the usages of war, this
would not be an offence for the notice of a military tribunal. The
perpetrators of it would be liable to such vindictive measures as the
policy of the conqueror might choose to adopt. That we have given you,
therefore, the benefit of an inquiry, you must regard as an act of
grace, springing out of our sincere desire to do you ample justice. The
nature of the offence imputed and proved is such as, at this moment,
every consideration of expediency demands should be visited with
exemplary punishment. The friends of the royal cause, wherever they may
reside, shall be protected from the wrath of the rebel government; and
we have, therefore, no scruple in saying, that the attempt upon the
person of Mr. Philip Lindsay requires a signal retribution. But for this
last act, the court might have been induced to overlook all your other
trespasses. Upon this, however, there is no hesitation.

"Such being the state of the facts ascertained by this tribunal, its
function ceases with its certificate of the truth of what has been
proved before it. The rest remains to me. Without the form of an
investigation, I might, as the commanding officer of a corps on detached
service, and by virtue of special power conferred upon me, have made up
a private judgment in the case. I have forborne to do that, until, by
the sanction of a verdict