"He wanted to plead Guilty, and the Sirdar had all he could do to
prevent him."
"Enter a plea of 'Not guilty' on the record," said the President.
Then addressing Gordon, the President asked if he was represented by
counsel. Gordon shook his head. Did he desire to conduct his own
defence? Again Gordon shook his head. The President conferred for a
moment with the other members of the Court and then said--
"It is within the power of the Court to appoint a properly qualified
person to act as counsel for the accused, and in this case the Court
desires to do so. Is there any officer here who wishes to undertake the
task of Defender?"
In a moment it was plainly evident that the sympathies of Gordon's
brother-officers were with him. Twenty men in uniform had leapt to their
feet and were holding up their hands.
"Lord God, how they love him!" whispered Hafiz, and Helena had to hold
down her head lest she should be seen to cry.
The Defender selected was a young Captain of Cavalry who had brought a
brilliant reputation from the Staff College, and in a moment he was in
the midst of his duties.
"Does the accused desire a short adjournment of the Court in order to
instruct his Defender?" asked the President.
Once more Gordon, who had stood passively during these proceedings,
shook his head, and then, without further preliminaries, the trial
began. The Prosecutor rose to make his opening address. He was an
Artillery Officer of high reputation.
"He'll make it no worse than he can help," whispered Hafiz.
In simple words the Prosecutor stated his case, confining himself to the
briefest explanation of the facts he was about to prove, and then he
called the first of his witnesses. This was the Military Secretary,
Captain Graham, who had been present at the prisoner's interview with
the late General Graves.
"Not a bad chap--he'll do no more than he must," whispered Hafiz.
Replying to the Prosecutor's questions, the Military Secretary said that
Gordon had refused to obey the order of his superior given personally by
that officer in the execution of his office, and that his refusal had
been deliberate and distinct, and such as showed an intention to defy
and resist authority.
"I object," said the officer who filled the post of Judge Advocate, and
after he had shown that the latter part of the witness's answer was not
evidence but inference which the Court alone could draw, the objection
was allowed.
The Defender then rose to cross-examine the first witness, and in a few
minutes the Military Secretary was made to prove, first, that the
prisoner had tried to show his superior that the order he was giving him
was contrary to humanity and likely to lead to an irreparable result;
next, that when executed by another officer, it _had_ led to an
irreparable result, including bloodshed and loss of life; and, finally,
that after the order had been disobeyed by the accused the most
inexcusable and disgraceful and even illegal and unsoldierly insults had
been inflicted upon him by his General.
"That's true! My God, that's true! Illegal and unsoldierly!" whispered
Hafiz, forgetting to whom he was talking; and Helena, in the riot of her
dual love, for her father and for Gordon, could do nothing but hold down
her head.
Then the Prosecutor called Colonel Macdonald.
"A brute--he'll do his dam'dest," whispered Hafiz.
Amid scarcely suppressed murmurs Colonel Macdonald, speaking with
manifest bitterness, proved the assault upon himself, and then went on
to say that it was unprovoked, it was brutal, and it was conduct
unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman.
"A lie like that has no legs to walk on," whispered Hafiz.
"No, but it has wings to fly with, though," said the Princess.
"Hush!" said Helena.
Again, like a flash of light, the Judge Advocate had leapt up to protest
against an inference which the Court alone was entitled to draw, and
again the objection was upheld and the inference was expunged.
Amid obvious excitement among the soldiers in Court, the Defender then
rose to cross-examine the second witness, and in a moment Macdonald's
freckled face had become scarlet, as he was compelled to admit that, at
the instant before he was assaulted, he had ordered the shooting of a
boy (who fell dead from the walls of El Azhar) and was then swearing at
the boy's mother who was weeping over her son.
"Ah, his rage will be at the end of his nose now," whispered the
Princess.
Finally, the Prosecutor called the officer who was temporarily
commanding the Army of Occupation to show that the accused, after
disobeying the order of his late General, had disappeared from Cairo and
had not been seen since the riot at El Azhar until his capture two days
before.
The evidence for the prosecution being now finished, the Court prepared
itself for the defence. There was a certain appearance of anxious
curiosity on the faces of the Judges, and a tingling atmosphere of
expectancy among the spectators.
Then came a surprise. The young Defender, who had been holding a
whispered conference with Gordon, turned to the President and said--
"I regret to say that the accused has decided not to call any witnesses
in defence."
"But perhaps," said the President, turning to Gordon, "you wish to give
evidence for yourself. Do you?"
There was another moment of breathless silence, and then Gordon, after
looking slowly round the room, in the direction of the place in which
Helena sat with her head down, said calmly--
"No."
At that the murmuring among the spectators could hardly be suppressed.
It was now plainly evident that Gordon's brother officers were with him
to a man. They had been counting on an explanation that would at least
palliate his conduct if it could not excuse his offences. The
disappointment was deep, but the sympathy was still deeper. Could it be
possible that Gordon _meant_ to die?
"Lift up your veil, child," whispered the Princess, but Helena shook her
head.
After the Prosecutor had summed up his evidence, the Defender addressed
the Court for the defence. He pleaded extenuating circumstances, first
on the ground that the order given to the accused, though not in
opposition to the established customs of the army or the laws of
England, was calculated to do irreparable injury and had done such
injury, and next on the ground of outrageous provocation.
When the Defender had finished, the President announced that his
Excellency the Sirdar had volunteered to give evidence in proof of the
prisoner's honourable record, and that the Court had decided to hear
him.
The Sirdar was then sworn, and in strong, affecting, soldierly words, he
said the accused had rendered great services to his country; that he had
received many medals and distinctions; that he was as brave a man as
ever stood under arms, and one of the young officers who made an old
soldier proud to belong to the British army.
There is no company more easily moved to tears than a company of
soldiers, and when the Sirdar sat down there was not a dry eye in that
assembly of brave men.
After a pause the President announced that the Court would be closed to
consider the finding, but in order to assist the Judges in doing so it
would be desirable that they should know more of the conditions under
which the accused was arrested. Therefore the following persons would
be asked to remain:--
His Excellency the Sirdar.
The Commandant of Police.
Captain Hafiz Ahmed of the Egyptian Army.
Helena, with the other spectators, was passing out of the room when the
Sirdar touched her on the shoulder and said, haltingly--
"Have you perhaps got ... can you trust me with those letters for a
little while?"
By some impulse, hardly intelligible to herself, Helena had brought
Gordon's letters with her, and after a moment's hesitation she took them
out of her pocket and gave them to the Sirdar, saying, very faintly, but
very sweetly--
"Yes, I can trust them to _you_."
Then with the Princess she went out into the great hall and sat there on
a window-seat, while the Court was closed. There was a sad and solemn
expression in her face, and seeing this, even through her dark veil, the
officers, who were pacing to and fro, moved by that delicacy which is
the nobler part of an English gentleman's reserve--respect for the
intimacies that are sacred to another person--merely bowed to her as
they passed.
The strain was great, for she knew what was going on behind the closed
door of the Court-room. The Judges were trying to find in the
circumstances of Gordon's arrest some excuse for his desertion. She
could see the Sirdar and Hafiz struggling to show that, however
irregular and reprehensible from a disciplinary standpoint, Gordon's had
been the higher patriotism; that, coming back under those strange
conditions and in that strange disguise, he had deliberately returned to
die. And she could see the Court powerfully moved by that plea, yet
helpless to take account of it.
Half-an-hour passed; an hour; nearly two hours, and then a young officer
came up to tell Helena that the Court was about to re-open.
"I think--I hope they intend to recommend him to mercy," he said,
blunderingly, and at the next moment he felt as if he would like to cut
his tongue out. But Helena was unhurt. She held up her head for the
first time that day, and, to the Princess's surprise, when they
re-entered the room, and the officers made way for her, she pushed
through to the front and took a seat, back to the wall, immediately
before the Sirdar and almost face to face with Gordon.
There was that tense atmosphere in the Court which always precedes a
sentence, but there was also a sort of humid air, as if the Angel of
Pity had passed through the place and softened it to tears.
Gordon was told to rise, and then the President, obviously affected,
proceeded to address him. He might say at once that the Judges
regretted to find themselves unable to take account of the moral aspects
of the case. Nothing but its military aspects came within their
cognisance. That being so, the Court, notwithstanding the able and
ingenious defence, could find no excuse for insubordination--the first
duty of a soldier was to obey. In like manner they could find no excuse
for a savage personal attack by an officer in uniform upon another
officer in the exercise of his office--it was conduct to the prejudice
of good order and military discipline. Finally, the Court could find no
excuse for desertion--it was an act of great offence to the flag which a
soldier was sworn to serve.
"Under these circumstances," continued the President, "the Court have no
alternative but to find you guilty of the crimes with which you have
been charged, and though it is within the Court's discretion to mitigate
the penalty of your offences, they have decided, after anxious
deliberation, remembering the grave fact that the force in Egypt is on
active service, not to exercise that right, but, out of regard to your
high record as a soldier and the great provocation which you certainly
suffered, to content themselves with recommending you to mercy, thus
leaving the issue to a higher authority. Therefore, whatever the result
of that recommendation, it is now my duty, my very painful duty, to
pronounce upon you, Charles George Gordon Lord, the full sentence
prescribed by military law--death."
There was a solemn silence until the President's last word was spoken,
when all eyes were turned towards. Gordon.
He bore himself with absolute self-possession. There was a slight
quivering of the eyelids, and a quick glint of the steel-grey eyes in
the direction of the opposite side of the Court--nothing more.
Then a thrilling incident occurred. Helena, whose head had been down,
was seen to rise in her seat, and to raise her thick dark veil. One
moment she stood there, back to the wall, with her magnificent pale face
all strength and courage, looking steadily across at the prisoner as if
nobody else were present in the room. Then, as quietly as she had
risen, she sank back to her place.
Oh, sublime power of love! Oh, pitiful impotence of words! Everybody
felt the thousand inexpressible things which that simple act was meant
to convey.
Gordon was the first to feel them, and when his guard touched him on the
arm he turned and went out with a step that rang on the marble
floor--firm as a rock.
As the Court broke up, one of the officers was heard to whisper
hoarsely--
"She's worthy of him--what more is there to say?"