difficult case unprecedented in his prior experience. Yet even as to him he was
not without some latent misgiving, for withal he was an extremely good-natured
man, an enjoyer of his dinner, a sound sleeper, and inclined to obesity. The
sort of man who, though he would always maintain his manhood in battle, might
not prove altogether reliable in a moral dilemma involving aught of the tragic.
As to the first lieutenant and the sailing-master, Captain Vere could not but be
aware that though honest natures, of approved gallantry upon occasion, their
intelligence was mostly confined to the matter of active seamanship, and the
fighting demands of their profession. The court was held in the same cabin where
the unfortunate affair had taken place. This cabin, the commander's, embraced
the entire area under the poop-deck. Aft, and on either side, was a small
state-room - the one room temporarily a jail, and the other a dead-house - and a
yet smaller compartment leaving a space between, expanding forward into a goodly
oblong of length coinciding with the ship's beam. A skylight of moderate
dimensions was overhead, and at each end of the oblong space were two sashed
port-hole windows easily convertible back into embrasures for short carronades.
    All being quickly in readiness, Billy Budd was arraigned, Captain Vere
necessarily appearing as the sole witness in the case, and as such temporarily
sinking his rank, though singularly maintaining it in a matter apparently
trivial, namely, that he testified from the ship's weather-side, with that
object having caused the court to sit on the lee-side. Concisely he narrated all
that had led up to the catastrophe, omitting nothing in Claggart's accusation,
and deposing as to the manner in which the prisoner had received it. At this
testimony the three officers glanced with no little surprise at Billy Budd, the
last man they would have suspected, either of mutinous design alleged by
Claggart, or of the undeniable deed he himself had done. The first lieutenant
taking judicial primary, and turning toward the prisoner, said, »Captain Vere
has spoken. Is it or is it not as Captain Vere says?« In response came syllables
not so much impeded in the utterance as might have been anticipated. They were
these: -
    »Captain Vere tells the truth. It is just as Captain Vere says, but it is
not as the master-at-arms said. I have eaten the King's bread, and I am true to
the King.«
    »I believe you, my