{"id":"01KG6G86NSV7P0HQEJPP04CBSM","cid":"bafkreiccxbarvhz2prqkmcazu4b2ajv7t7vkcuytf6drimo7r53t4wynoe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2506,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":2443,"text":"usage to turn the matter over to a summary court of his own officers,\r\nreserving to himself, as the one on whom the ultimate accountability\r\nwould rest, the right of maintaining a supervision of it, or formally or\r\ninformally interposing at need. Accordingly a drum-head court was\r\nsummarily convened, he electing the individuals composing it--the first\r\nlieutenant, the captain of marines, and the sailing-master.\r\n\r\nIn associating an officer of marines with the sea-lieutenant in a case\r\nhaving to do with a sailor, the commander perhaps deviated from general\r\ncustom. He was prompted thereto by the circumstance that he took that\r\nsoldier to be a judicious person, thoughtful and not altogether\r\nincapable of grappling with a difficult case unprecedented in his prior\r\nexperience. Yet even as to him he was not without some latent misgiving,\r\nfor withal he was an extremely good-natured man, an enjoyer of his\r\ndinner, a sound sleeper, and inclined to obesity. The sort of man who,\r\nthough he would always maintain his manhood in battle, might not prove\r\naltogether reliable in a moral dilemma involving aught of the tragic. As\r\nto the first lieutenant and the sailing-master, Captain Vere could not\r\nbut be aware that though honest natures, of approved gallantry upon\r\noccasion, their intelligence was mostly confined to the matter of active\r\nseamanship, and the fighting demands of their profession. The court was\r\nheld in the same cabin where the unfortunate affair had taken place.\r\nThis cabin, the commander’s, embraced the entire area under the\r\npoop-deck. Aft, and on either side, was a small state-room--the one room\r\ntemporarily a jail, and the other a dead-house--and a yet smaller\r\ncompartment leaving a space between, expanding forward into a goodly\r\noblong of length coinciding with the ship’s beam. A skylight of moderate\r\ndimensions was overhead, and at each end of the oblong space were two\r\nsashed port-hole windows easily convertible back into embrasures for\r\nshort carronades.\r\n\r\nAll being quickly in readiness, Billy Budd was arraigned, Captain Vere\r\nnecessarily appearing as the sole witness in the case, and as such\r\ntemporarily sinking his rank, though singularly maintaining it in a\r\nmatter apparently trivial, namely, that he testified from the ship’s\r\nweather-side, with that object having caused the court to sit on the\r\nlee-side. Concisely he narrated all that had led up to the catastrophe,\r\nomitting nothing in Claggart’s accusation, and deposing as to the manner\r\nin which the prisoner had received it. At this testimony the three\r\nofficers glanced with no little surprise at Billy Budd, the last man\r\nthey would have suspected, either of mutinous design alleged by\r\nClaggart, or of the undeniable deed he himself had done. The first\r\nlieutenant taking judicial primary, and turning toward the prisoner,\r\nsaid, ‘Captain Vere has spoken. Is it or is it not as Captain Vere\r\nsays?’ In response came syllables not so much impeded in the utterance\r\nas might have been anticipated. They were these:--\r\n\r\n‘Captain Vere tells the truth. It is just as Captain Vere says, but it\r\nis not as the master-at-arms said. I have eaten the King’s bread, and I\r\nam true to the King.’\r\n\r\n‘I believe you, my man,’ said the witness, his voice indicating a\r\nsuppressed emotion not otherwise betrayed.\r\n\r\n‘God will bless you for that, your honour!’ not without stammering, said\r\nBilly, and all but broke down. But immediately was recalled to\r\nself-control by another question, to which with the same emotional\r\ndifficulty of utterance he said, ‘No, there was no malice between us. I\r\nnever bore malice against the master-at-arms. I am sorry that he is\r\ndead. I did not mean to kill him. Could I have used my tongue I would\r\nnot have struck him. But he foully lied to my face, and in the presence\r\nof my captain, and I had to say something, and I could only say it with\r\na blow. God help me!’\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6PJNH5QCRX73H14BH0PF","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G86NV4YNZSDZJSVSKJ8FE","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G86NVXRHXDH06CMZJQHZ1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:18.745Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:25.257Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}