“And we will celebrate our departure by hanging up that young rogue, Hansford, in half an hour,” said Berkeley.
“By what law, may it please your excellency?” asked Ballard, surprised at this threat.
“By martial law.”
“And for what offence?”
“Why zounds, Ballard, you have turned advocate-general for all the rebels in the country,” said Berkeley, petulantly.
“No, Sir William, I am advocating the cause of justice and of my king.”
“Well, sir, what would you advise? To set the rogue at liberty, I suppose, and by our leniency to encourage treason.”
“By no means,” said Ballard. “But either to commit him to custody until he may be fairly tried by a jury of his peers, or to take him with you to Accomac, where, by further developments of this insurrection, you may better judge of the nature of his offence.”
“And a hospitable reception would await me in Accomac, forsooth, if I appeared there with a prisoner of war, whom I did not have the firmness to punish as his crime deserves. No, by heaven! I will not be encumbered with prisoners. His life is forfeit to the law, and as he would prove an apostle of liberty, let him be a martyr to his cause.”
“Let me add my earnest intercession to that of Colonel Ballard,” said Temple, “in behalf of this unhappy man. I surely have some claim upon your benevolence, and I ask his life as a personal boon to me.”