“You swear by the order to which you belong that the evidence you give shall be truth without equivocation and without mental reservation?”
“I swear it.”
“Has the prisoner a commission signed by the Emperor empowering him to command the Imperial troops?”
“He has not, and never has had such a commission. A document was made out and sent three times to his Majesty for signature; to-day it was returned for the third time unsigned.”
“Prisoner, do you deny that statement?”
“I neither deny nor affirm.”
Wilhelm was well aware that his fate was decided upon. Even if he had appeared before a regularly constituted court of the Empire instead of at the bar of an underground secret association, the verdict must inevitably have gone against him, so long as the Emperor’s signature was not appended to the document which would have legalised his position.
“It would appear then,” went on the examiner, “that in the action you took against your immediate over-lord, the Archbishop of Mayence, you were unprotected by the mandate of the Emperor. Freigraf and Freischoffen have heard question and answer. With extreme reluctance I am compelled to announce to this honourable body, that nothing now remains except to pronounce the verdict.”
With this the examiner sat down, and for a few moments there was silence, then the Freigraf enunciated in a low voice the single word:
“Condemned.”