Captain Blood: His Odyssey / Одиссея капитана Блада. Рафаэль Сабатини

Pitt: “And where is Lord Gildoy now?”

      Young Pitt looked at him. His grey eyes were round and questioning. Blood explained:

      “Sure, now, we’ve never seen him since that day at the farm. He is a rich man and he can buy his freedom. Only those who followed are waiting for the gallows now; those who had led them are free.”

      He laughed.

      Later Mr. Blood, Pitt, and Baynes went into the great hall of Taunton Castle to take their trial.

      There were many people in the hall, most of them were ladies. The walls of the hall were red; the Lord Chief Justice was bloodthirsty, so he liked the colour.

      In the hall sat the five Lords Commissioners[14]_{in their red} robes. Baron Jefrf eys of Wem sat in the middle place.

      The prisoners walked in under guard one after the other. The crier called for silence, and the voices became quiet. Mr. Blood looked with interest at the twelve good and true members of the jury. They looked neither good nor true. They were twelve scared men and they stood between the sword of the Lord Chief Justice and their own conscience.

      Then Mr. Blood looked at the Lords Commissioners and Lord Jefrf eys. He knew how bloodthirsty Lord Jefrf eys was.

      Lord Jefrf eys was a tall man in his forties, with an oval beautiful face. His face was very pale, only his full lips were red. Something in those lips ruined that beautiful face. The doctor in Mr. Blood looked at him with interest. He knew that the man suffered from a disease and that he led such a life in spite of it – or even because of it.

      “Peter Blood, hold up your hand!”

      When Mr. Blood raised his hand, the clerk told him that he was a false traitor against King James the Second. Mr. Blood was then told to say whether he was guilty or not guilty. He answered more than was asked.

      “I am innocent.”

      A small man at a table before and to the right of him stood up. It was Mr. Pollexfen, the Judge-Advocate[15].

      “Are you guilty or not guilty?” said this gentleman.

      “Not guilty.” said Peter Blood. And he went on, speaking to the bench. “I am only guilty, because I didn’t have enough patience. I spent two months in prison with great danger to my health and even life…”

      He would have said more; but then the Lord Chief Justice started speaking in a gentle and slightly sad voice.

      “We must follow the usual methods of trial, so I must interrupt you. I’m sure you do not know the forms of law?”

      “I don’t, my lord, and I would not want to learn them.”

      The Lord Chief Justice smiled.

      “I believe you. We shall hear you when you come to your defense. But now you cannot say anything.”

      Mr. Blood answered that he would be tried by God and his country. The clerk then called upon Andrew Baynes to hold up his hand.

      When Baynes said he was not guilty, the clerk called upon Pitt, who said he was guilty. The Lord Chief Justice was happy to hear that.

      “Come; that’s better. If he answered as the other two rebels, there would never be an end.”

      After those words, Mr. Pollexfen stood up. He said that there was a general case against the three men, and a particular case against Peter Blood.

      The only witness for the King was Captain Hobart. He told the jury how he had found and taken the three prisoners, together with Lord Gildoy. He would have hanged Pitt, but had listened to the lies of the prisoner Blood and believed that Pitt was a noble man.

      As the Captain finished, Lord Jefrf eys looked at Peter Blood.

      “Will the prisoner Blood ask the witness any questions?”

      “No, my lord. He has told you exactly what happened”

      “I am glad. For we always have the truth in the end. Be sure of that.”

      Baynes and Pitt admitted that the Captain’s evidence was accurate. The Lord Chief Justice sighed. He was relieved.

      “If this is so, let us continue, because we have much to do.” His voice was not gentle anymore. “I think, Mr. Pollexfen, now when these three prisoners admitted their treason, there is no more to be said.”

      Peter Blood spoke and members of the jury could almost hear laughter in his voice.

      “There’s much more to be said.”

      Lord Jefrf eys looked at him, first in surprise, then in anger.

      “How now? Would you waste our time?”

      “I would like to speak in my defense, as you promised me.”

      “Why, so you shall.” The Lord Chief Justice took a handkerchief with his delicate unusually white hand and touched his lips and then his brow with it. Peter Blood saw that the disease that was destroying him made him feel pain. “So you shall. But after you admitted your treason, what defense is there?”

      “You shall judge, my lord.”

      “That is why I sit here.”

      “And so shall you, gentlemen.” Blood looked from judge to jury. The jury moved under the look of his blue eyes.

      “Captain Hobart has told you what he knows – that he found me at the farm on the Monday morning after the battle at Weston. But he has not told you what I did there.”

      Again the Judge broke in. “Why, what should you have been doing there among rebels? Two of them – Lord Gildoy and your friend there – have already admitted their guilt.”

      “That is what I would like to tell you.”

      “Well, do, but be brief, man.”

      “I was there, my lord, as a doctor, to help the wounded Lord Gildoy.”

      “What’s this? Do you tell us that you are a doctor?”

      “A graduate of Trinity College, Dublin.”

      “Good God!” cried Lord Jefrf eys and looked at the jury. “You heard the witness say that he had known him in France some years ago? He was then an oficf er in the French service. You heard the prisoner admit that the witness had spoken the truth?”

      “That is true. What I am telling you is also true. For some years I was a soldier; but before that I was a doctor, and I have been a doctor in Bridgewater since last January. I can bring a hundred witnesses to prove.”

      “Don’t waste our time with that. I will ask you only this: Why were you with the army of the Duke of Monmouth?”

      “I was never with that army. No witness has said that, and no witness will. What should I as a papist be doing in the army of the Protestant leader?”

      “A papist?” The judge looked at him for a moment. “You are more like a Presbyterian. I can smell a Presbyterian forty miles.”

      “Then why can’t you smell a papist at four steps?”

      Some people in the galleries laughed, but they were silent when the Judge looked at them.

      Lord Jefrf eys raised his delicate white hand.

      “We won’t talk about your religion, friend,” said he. “But listen to what I say to you. Know, friend, there is no religion that says that lying is a good thing. There is nothing more precious in the world than a soul. Why were you taken with these rebels?”

      Peter Blood looked at him for a moment. The man was a nightmare judge. Then he replied:

      “I

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Лорды-уполномоченные, участники суда Высокой комиссии, верховного церковного суда в Англии и Шотландии, восстановленного на время правления короля Якова II.

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Судья-адвокат – консультант по правовым вопросам в военном суде.