he could say, and the tragedy of five years was disposed of in the
following dialogue:- JUDGE: This is not the place for an accusation
against Captain Frere, nor the place to argue upon your alleged
wrongs. If you have suffered injustice, the authorities will hear your
complaint, and redress it.

RUFUS DAWES I have complained, your Honour. I wrote letter after letter
to the Government, but they were never sent. Then I heard she was
dead, and they sent me to the Coal Mines after that, and we never hear
anything there.

JUDGE I can't listen to you. Mr. Mangles, have you any more questions to
ask the witness?

But Mr. Mangles not having any more, someone called, "Matthew Gabbett,"
and Rufus Dawes, still endeavouring to speak, was clanked away with,
amid a buzz of remark and surmise.

* * * * *

The trial progressed without further incident. Sylvia was not called,
and, to the astonishment of many of his enemies, Captain Frere went into
the witness-box and generously spoke in favour of John Rex. "He might
have left us to starve," Frere said; "he might have murdered us; we were
completely in his power. The stock of provisions on board the brig was
not a large one, and I consider that, in dividing it with us, he showed
great generosity for one in his situation." This piece of evidence told
strongly in favour of the prisoners, for Captain Frere was known to
be such an uncompromising foe to all rebellious convicts that it was
understood that only the sternest sense of justice and truth could lead
him to speak in such terms. The defence set up by Rex, moreover, was
most ingenious. He was guilty of absconding, but his moderation might
plead an excuse for that. His only object was his freedom, and, having
gained it, he had lived honestly for nearly three years, as he could
prove. He was charged with piratically seizing the brig Osprey, and he
urged that the brig Osprey, having been built by convicts at Macquarie
Harbour, and never entered in any shipping list, could not be said to
be "piratically seized", in the strict meaning of the term. The Court
admitted the force of this objection, and, influenced doubtless by
Captain Frere's evidence, the fact that five years had passed since the
mutiny, and that the two men most guilty (Cheshire and Barker) had
been executed in England, sentenced Rex and his three companions to
transportation for life to the penal settlements of the col