{"id":"01KG8AM6HSVCN0NXR5S3T05SQQ","cid":"bafkreihscg5467u4yux2xl7rbseg44lrng2gisw7y736wyfs6c56dkn7ju","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2397,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":2330,"text":"related the circumstances leading up to the event.\r\n\r\n‘But come; we must dispatch,’ he added; ‘help me to remove him (meaning\r\nthe body) to yonder compartment’--designating one opposite where the\r\nforetopman remained immured. Anew disturbed by a request that as\r\nimplying a desire for secrecy seemed unaccountably strange to him, there\r\nwas nothing for the subordinate to do but comply.\r\n\r\n‘Go now,’ said Captain Vere, with something of his wonted manner, ‘go\r\nnow. I shall presently call a drum-head court. Tell the lieutenants what\r\nhas happened, and tell Mr. Morton’--meaning the captain of marines. ‘And\r\ncharge them to keep the matter to themselves.’\r\n\r\nFull of disquietude and misgivings, the surgeon left the cabin. Was\r\nCaptain Vere suddenly affected in his mind, or was it but a transient\r\nexcitement brought about by so strange and extraordinary a happening? As\r\nto the drum-head court, it struck the surgeon as impolitic, if nothing\r\nmore. The thing to do, he thought, was to place Billy Budd in\r\nconfinement, and in a way dictated by usage, and postpone further action\r\nin so extraordinary a case to such time as they should again join the\r\nsquadron, and then transfer it to the admiral. He recalled the unwonted\r\nagitation of Captain Vere and his excited exclamations, so at variance\r\nwith his normal manner. Was he unhinged? But assuming that he was, it\r\nwere not so susceptible of proof. What then could he do? No more trying\r\nsituation is conceivable than that of an officer subordinated under a\r\ncaptain whom he suspects to be, not mad indeed, but yet not quite\r\nunaffected in his intellect. To argue his order to him would be\r\ninsolence. To resist him would be mutiny. In obedience to Captain Vere\r\nhe communicated to the lieutenants and captain of marines what had\r\nhappened, saying nothing as to the captain’s state. They stared at him\r\nin surprise and concern. Like him, they seemed to think that such a\r\nmatter should be reported to the admiral.\r\n\r\nWho in the rainbow can draw the line where the violet tint ends and the\r\norange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colour, but\r\nwhere exactly does the first one visibly enter into the other? So with\r\nsanity and insanity. In pronounced cases there is no question about\r\nthem. But in some cases, in various degrees supposedly less pronounced,\r\nto draw the line of demarcation few will undertake, though for a fee\r\nsome professional experts will. There is nothing nameable but that some\r\nmen will undertake to do for pay. In other words, there are instances\r\nwhere it is next to impossible to determine whether a man is sane or\r\nbeginning to be otherwise.\r\n\r\nWhether Captain Vere, as the surgeon professionally surmised, was really\r\nthe sudden victim of any degree of aberration, one must determine for\r\nhimself by such light as this narrative may afford.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n                                 XVIII\r\n\r\n\r\nThe unhappy event which has been narrated could not have happened at a\r\nworse juncture. For it was close on the heel of the suppressed\r\ninsurrections, an after-time very critical to naval authority, demanding\r\nfrom every English sea-commander two qualities not readily\r\ninterfusable--prudence and rigour. Moreover, there was something crucial\r\nin the case.\r\n\r\nIn the jugglery of circumstances preceding and attending the event on\r\nboard the _Indomitable_, and in the light of that martial code whereby\r\nit was formally to be judged, innocence and guilt, personified in\r\nClaggart and Budd, in effect changed places.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJV0GJ6SDZS7Z24MESH84","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM6HQGXEQCK03VS6F2ED1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM6HTC3511J50Q4QMRQJS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:29.241Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.571Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}