e was lingering in the first transient period when men and
women see visions and dream dreams, when the present is lost in the
recent past, while love's first spell is laid upon them, and the light
that never was on land or sea blinds them to the chances and changes of
common life. As long as the glory of it lasts a man is caught up into
the seventh heaven, and the things of earth have no power over him.

But the breaking of the vision came to Rallywood sufficiently quickly.
His view of the lamp-lit city grew suddenly blurred and he saw instead
his own reflection in the polished glass, as the lights were turned on
in the room behind him. In that same instant too the vague sweet outlook
faded from his mind.

Then a hand was laid upon his shoulder and he saw another figure
mirrored beside his own against the dark background of the night. There
was a suggestion of reluctance in Unziar's movements.

'I regret, Captain Rallywood, that I have been ordered to place you in
arrest.'

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE COURT-MARTIAL.

It has been the privilege of one or two famous Gardes du Corps to be a
law unto themselves. The Guard of Maasau shares that privilege. The
inquiry or rather trial was to be held within closed doors, and by the
express order of the colonel-in-chief all the officers, including those
junior to the prisoner, were to be present. And every officer present on
such occasions had the right to vote. The procedure was simple. When the
witnesses had been examined the accused was invited to speak in his own
defence, then the senior officer summed up and lastly the officers
recorded their votes.

Rallywood's offence had outraged the fundamental principle of the Guard,
the blind self-sacrificing obedience which in trivial as in vital
matters demanded the merging of the private individual with hopes and
conscience of his own into the body corporate of the Guard. With the
single exception of Unziar, no man present was acquainted with the
details of Rallywood's crime. They knew only that he had grossly
disobeyed orders, and not only that, but had disobeyed them for the
furtherance of private ambition. So the charge against him intimated. It
was understood that the accusation had been lodged by Count Sagan in
consequence of information received by him, and the court-martial at
once assembled to deal with the matter.

The original prejudice against Rallywood as a foreigner and an
interloper was revived, with all the