ersuasive powers of language he knew so well. He would be
unable, with his very insufficient command of language, to enlighten
the court in an impressive manner as to intimate details. Somehow,
therefore, the money must be raised.

After three weeks of preliminary confinement, the term was at last
fixed at which the trial was to take place. Schmitz felt that he could
await its issue with a clear conscience. Even his counsel had told him
that an unfavorable end was not to be expected, as soon as the judges
had been made acquainted with the circumstances preceding the actual
trifling occurrence in the stable. Schmitz expected, therefore, that
the term at which he was to be tried would also be the day of
regaining his liberty; for the last few weeks, what with suffering
from hardships, from the insufficient and coarse jail diet, and from
worry, had been terrible ones indeed for him.

Even the formal indictment drawn up against him, of which a copy had
been sent him, could not repress his hopes. He knew that in such a
document everything concerning him and his offence was naturally
represented in the darkest colors, so as to leave the judge-advocate
sufficient grounds on which to bring the proceedings against him to
the point of actual trial.

The document read:

"Proceedings have been opened against Sergeant Ferdinand
Julius Schmitz, on motion to that effect, because of an
offence against Paragraph 94 of the Military Criminal Code.

"Although the defendant maintains that he has been on
particularly friendly terms with Vice-Sergeant-Major Roth,
that would in no way justify him in disobeying an order
issued while in the performance of duty. On the contrary,
his refusal to obey two peremptory and emphatic orders,
given in the presence of the stable guard, and therefore
before men assembled, was a most glaring instance of
insubordination.

"The excuse of defendant, that he was in an excited
condition by reason of indulgence in alcoholic liquors, in
nowise exculpates him. The circumstance that his offence has
been committed while intoxicated during the performance of
his duty, is rather an additional reason for increasing the
measure of his punishment.

"Defendant will be tried by court-martial."

That sounded indeed very dangerous, just as if he were a criminal of
the deepest dye,--he, who for nine years had conducted himself