"
"Your escape from either drowning or shooting on that occasion, among
many others," said the commander, "makes me augur something more
serious of your future destiny."
"That may be," said I; "but I dispute the legality of your act, in
trying to kill me before you knew who I was, or what I was about. I
might have been mad, for what you knew; or I might have belonged to
some other ship; but, in any event, had you killed me, and had my body
been found, a coroner's inquest would have gone very hard with you,
and a jury still worse."
"I should have laughed at them," said Talbot.
"You might have found it no laughing matter," said I.
"How?" replied Talbot, "what are sentinels placed for, and loaded with
ball?"
"To defend the ship," said I; "to give warning of approaching danger;
to prevent men going out of the ship without leave; but never to take
away the life of a man unless in defence of their own, or when the
safety of the king's ship demands it."
"I deny your conclusion," said Talbot; "the articles of war denounce
death to all deserters."
"True," said I, "they do, and also to many other crimes; but those
crimes must first of all be proved before a court-martial. Now you
cannot prove that I was deserting, and if you could, you had not the
power to inflict death on me unless I was going towards the enemy.
I own I was disobeying your orders, but even that would not have
subjected me to more than a slight punishment, while your arbitrary
act would have deprived the king, as I flatter myself, of a loyal,
and not a useless subject; and if my body had not been found, no good
could have accrued to the service from the severity of example.
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