your lordship will tell me how, the Council, I am sure, will be
ready to do all that lies in its power to satisfy you."

Wellington shifted his chair round a little, and crossed his legs. He
brought his finger-tips together, and over the top of them his eyes
considered the Secretary of State.

"Your Excellency has spoken of expediency--political expediency.
Sometimes political expediency can overreach itself and perpetrate the
most grave injustices. Individuals at times are unnecessarily called
upon to suffer in the interests of a cause. Your Excellency will
remember a certain affair at Tavora some two months ago--the invasion of
a convent by a British officer with rather disastrous consequences and
the loss of some lives."

"I remember it perfectly, my lord. I had the honour of entertaining Sir
Terence upon that subject on the occasion of my last visit here."

"Quite so," said his lordship. "And on the grounds of political
expediency you made a bargain then with Sir Terence, I understand, a
bargain which entailed the perpetration of an injustice."

"I am not aware of it, my lord."

"Then let me refresh your Excellency's memory upon the facts. To appease
the Council of Regency, or rather to enable me to have my way with
the Council and remove the Principal Souza, you stipulated for the
assurance--so that you might lay it before your Council--that the
offending officer should be shot when taken."

"I could not help myself in the matter, and--"

"A moment, sir. That is not the way of British justice, and Sir Terence
was wrong to have permitted himself to consent; though I profoundly
appreciate the loyalty to me, the earnest desire to assist me, which led
him into an act the cost of which to himself your Excellency can hardly
appreciate. But the wrong lay in that by virtue of this bargain a
British officer was prejudged. He was to be made a scapegoat. He was
to be sent to his death when taken, as a peace-offering to the people,
demanded by the Council of Regency.

"Since all this happened I have had the facts of the case placed before
me. I will go so far as to tell you, sir, that the officer in question
has been in my hands for the past hour, that I have closely questioned
him, and that I am satisfied that whilst he has been guilty of conduct
which might compel me to deprive him of his Majesty's commission and
dismiss him from the army, yet that conduct is not such as to merit
death. He has chiefly sinned in fo