"I don't know," said the man.
"Perhaps they won't hang him. They'll give him a pardon."
"A pardon, indeed!" said the man. "Don't you see it's a court-martial. You may whistle for a pardon, if you please."
"What is a court-martial?"
"Why! don't you know? A court-martial is—why it's that the gentlemen sit down together and consult, and hang some one. That's as it ought to be."
"But suppose no one hangs him?"
"How can you ask such stupid questions? To hang a man you must have him first; but who ever heard of a man being sentenced to hanging and let off for the want of a hangman?"
"Just so; but suppose it were to happen after all? What then?"
"Hang me if I know! perhaps the gentlemen themselves will hang him, or they'll hang themselves with disappointment and vexation."[25]
[25] See [Note VIII].