“Monsieur, this I have already admitted; it cannot honorably be denied.”

“You are accused of coming on board His Majesty’s ship Proserpine disguised, and of calling yourself a boatman of Capri, when you were Raoul Yvard, an alien enemy, bearing arms against the king.”

“This is all true; but I was invited on board the ship, as I have just stated.”

“You are furthermore accused of rowing in among the ships of His Majesty, now lying in the Bay of Naples, and which ships are under the orders of Rear-Admiral Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte, in Sicily, you being in the same disguise, though an alien enemy, with the intent to make your observations as a spy, and, doubtless, to avail yourself of information thus obtained, to the injury of His Majesty’s subjects, and to your own advantage and that of the nation you serve.”

“Monsieur, this is not so—­parole d’honneur, I went into the bay in search of Ghita Caraccioli, who has my whole heart, and whom I would persuade to become my wife.  Nothing else carried me into the bay; and I wore this dress because I might otherwise have been known and arrested.”

“This is an important fact, if you can prove it; for, though it might not technically acquit you, it would have its effect on the commander-in-chief, when he comes to decide on the sentence of this court.”

Raoul hesitated.  He did not doubt that Ghita, she whose testimony had just proved so serious a matter against him, would testify that she believed such was alone his motive; and this, too, in a way and with corroborative circumstances that would carry weight with the, more particularly as she could testify that he had done the same thing before, in the Island of Elba, and was even in the practice of paying her flying visits at Monte Argentaro.  Nevertheless, Raoul felt a strong reluctance to have Ghita again brought before the court.  With the jealous sensitiveness of true love, he was averse to subjecting its object to the gaze and comments of the rude of his own sex; then he knew his power over the feelings of the girl, and had too much sensibility not to enter into all the considerations that might influence a man on a point so delicate; and he could not relish the idea of publicly laying bare feelings that he wished to be as sacred to others as they were to himself.

“Can you prove what you have just averred, Raoul Yvard?” demanded the Judge Advocate.

“Monsieur—­I fear it will not be in my power.  There is one—­but—­I much fear it will not be in my power—­unless, indeed, I am permitted to examine my companion; he who has already been before you.”

“You mean Ithuel Bolt, I presume.  He has not yet been regularly before us, but you can produce him or any other witness; the court reserving to itself the right to decide afterward on the merits of the testimony.”

“Then, Monsieur, I could wish to have Etoo-ell here.”

The necessary directions were given, and Ithuel soon stood in the presence of his judges.  The oath was tendered, and Ithuel took it like a man who had done such things before.