point out
that the men on trial had not actually committed the crime, with which
they had been charged, that of seizing the ship, but had only
contemplated it, as had been alleged, though even that had not been
clearly proved; that, supposing the crime to have been committed, it was
a first offence, and that justice should always be tempered with mercy,
as was taught in that best of all law-books, the Bible.

The pleading of this man had considerable effect, but it could not turn
the tide of feeling in favour of the principal prisoners for more than
one reason. They had been domineering, turbulent fellows all along;
they had meditated a crime which would have robbed the settlers of many
of the necessaries and all the luxuries of life, and this displayed a
meanness of spirit which, they thought, deserved severe punishment.

Accordingly, after they had been pronounced guilty by the unanimous
voice of the jury, and after the judge had consulted earnestly with some
members of the privy council, Malines and Morris were condemned to a
fortnight's imprisonment on short allowance of the poorest food, and the
other criminals to the same for a week.

When Malines had been seized and bound on board the ship, he had
submitted, partly from prudence, and partly from a belief that the whole
affair was a sort of half joke but when he found himself rebound, after
the trial, and cast with his companions into a solid wooden building
with a strong door and no window, which had been erected as a sort of
fortress in which to put the women and children in case of attack by the
savages, and there provided with maize and water for food and straw for
bed, he began to realise the fact that he had indeed fallen into the
hands of resolute men and under the power of law.

"I wouldn't mind it so much if they'd only not cut off our baccy," he
groaned, on the afternoon of the following day, after a prolonged fit of
sullen silence.

"After all it sarves us right," growled Hugh Morris.

"Speak for yourself," said Jabez Jenkins sulkily.

"That's just what I do," retorted Hugh.

"Hear, hear!" from some of the others.

What this conversation might have grown to no one can tell, for it was
interrupted by the opening of the prison door and the entrance of a
party of armed men.

"I am directed," said Otto, who was in command of the party, "to bring
you fellows before the queen, so, come along."

Half amused by and half contemptuous of the leader