“I tell you what it is,” quietly remarked the captain, “I would much rather you let them off than that I should; for it strikes me, that all the useful ends of discipline will be much better served, and your hands, as well as mine, essentially strengthened, by your taking the initiative in this business instead of me.  My advice to you, therefore, is, that when I go below you send for the men, and say to them you have read their statement, and that, although it does by no means excuse, it certainly explains, and so far extenuates, their offence, that you feel disposed to try what your influence with the captain can do to get them off altogether.”

“I do not see the force of your reasoning,” answered the offended officer; “nor can I conscientiously trifle with the service in the manner proposed.  I thought at first, and I still think, that these men ought to be punished; and, as far as I am concerned, they certainly shall not escape.”

“Well, well,” cried the captain, “you will not, I hope, deny that I am the best judge of what is right and fitting to be done on board this ship; and I tell you again, that I consider the discipline will be better served by your being the mover in this case, than by my taking the affair, as you wish me to do, entirely out of your hands.  Will you do as I suggest?”

“I beg your pardon, sir, but really I cannot, consistently with my sense of duty, adopt the course you propose.  I think it right to insist, as far as I can with propriety, on these men being punished.”

“Turn the hands up for punishment, then!” said the captain to the first lieutenant, who had been walking on the other side of the deck during this colloquy; “and let the three prisoners be brought on deck.”

The gratings were soon rigged under the mizen-stay—­the quarter-masters placed with their seizings on either side—­the boatswain and his mates (with the terrible weapons of naval law barely concealed under their jackets) arranged themselves in a group round the mast—­while the marines, with fixed bayonets and shoulder arms, formed across the quarter-deck; and the ship’s company, standing in two double rows, lined the sides of the deck.  Not the slightest sound could be heard; and a person coming on deck blindfolded might have thought the ship lay in dock, without a soul on board.

In the middle of the open space before the hatchway stood the three culprits, with their hats off, and their eyes cast down in hopeless despair; but, to all outward appearance, firm and unmoved.

When all was declared ready, the first lieutenant descended to the cabin, but returned again almost immediately, followed closely by the captain, in his cocked hat and sword, grasping in one hand the well-known roll of paper containing the articles of war, and in the other the master-at-arms’ report of prisoners.  Every head was uncovered at his appearance; and as he lifted his hat in answer to this salute, he laid it on the capstan, against which he leaned while reading the article under which the delinquents had fallen.