rapidly, but with coolness;--all the while the
General's eyes, fairly glowing, were gazing down intently upon him.

"Colonel, if your manner was not respectful, I would think that you
intended insulting me by your d----d provoking coolness. Conscience!"
said the General, sneeringly, "conscience or no conscience, that man
must be duly sentenced. By G--d, I order it. You must reconvene the
Court without delay. It is well seen it is not a detail of Regulars.
Conscience wouldn't trouble them when a d----d miscreant was upon trial.
A boy of seventeen! Seventeen or thirty-seven! By G--d! he is a soldier
in the Army of the United States, and must be tried and punished as a
soldier. An idiot! What need you care about the brains of a soldier? If
he has the army cap on his head, that's all you need require. Plea of
insanity, indeed! We want no lawyer's tricks here. And as to that
discharge, if it is detained at my head-quarters, it is because it was
not properly folded or endorsed--may be will not fit neatly in the
pigeon-hole. Colonel," continued the General, moderating his tone
somewhat, "I must animadvert--by G--d, I must animadvert severely upon
that Record."

"General," quietly interrupted the Colonel, "you will publish your
animadversion, I trust, so that it can be read at dress parades, and the
Division have the benefit of it."

"There, Colonel," said the General, twitching his moustache violently,
"there it is again. You appear perfectly courteous--but that remark is
cool contempt. I want you to understand," his tones louder, and
gesticulations violent, "that you must take my strictures, tell the
court that they must impose the sentence I direct, and leave conscience
to me, and no d----d plea of insanity about it."

"General," observed the Colonel, rising, "I am the counsel of the
prisoner as well as of the United States. I cannot and will not injure
my own conscience, wrong the prisoner, or humiliate the Government by
insisting upon a death penalty."

"Read my strictures to the court, and do your duty, sir, or I'll
court-martial the whole d----d establishment. Go and re-assemble your
court forthwith."

As he said this he handed a couple of closely written sheets of large
sized letter-paper, tied with the inevitable red-tape, to the Colonel.
The Colonel bowed himself out, and the chair in front of the
pigeon-holes of the camp desk was again occupied by a living embodiment
of red-tape.

The court was forthwith no