EdD: For my next witness I call upon le Duc le d'Erring. [PldE enters the court, takes the stand, and is sworn in as a witness] EdD: For the record, Your Grace, please state your name and position. PldE: Brigadier-General le Duc Pic le d'Erring, Officer Commanding the Dragoon Guards and His Majesty's Minister of War. EdD: In your own words, Your Grace, please tell the court the circumstances surrounding Major du Pain's recent commission purchase. PldE: The Defendant, at the time the most junior officer in the regiment whose Captain's epaulettes had barely made acquaintance with his uniform, first contravened standing orders by purchasing the majority _earned_ by Vicomte le Vair through his years of courageous service. He then contravened another one by refusing to take the Colonel's decision, to wit my own, on the matter to be final. This culminated in his refusing to obey a direct order from myself as his commanding officer. In order to settle the matter in the absence of any stronger sanctions (though such would have been applied had they been in my power) the Defendant was fined and disbarred from regimental functions for a period of six months. This, frankly inadequate, penalty resulted in two valued and long serving officers. Captains le Vair and Dix-Huits, resigning the regiment and totally failed in its purpose of encouraging the Defendant to obey orders in the future. EdD: Perhaps Your Grace would be kind enough to elucidate further? PldE: The Defendant has subsequently _twice_ refused to obey further direct orders from his Commanding Officer regarding a reordering of the regiment's squadrons which would place him in command of the junior squadron. Not only this, but he has taken to bragging of the fact and ridiculing the regiment's proud traditions in the process. The Defendant send a message to Major de Custaad regarding this, which I have with me. The relevant sections are: "I to am filling out the following forms just in case something happens. LTC1 LTC2 LTC3 LTC4 LTC5 LTC6 LTC7 LTC8... LTC Forms are for purchasing the Lt.. Colonel rank." Having got off so lightly the first time the Defendant seems to expect to make a career of such mutinous behavior and seems determined to remain in a position from which he can thrust himself into the Lt..Colonelcy - a position for which he is obviously totally unsuited. An officer must learn to obey orders himself before any respect can be given to those orders he issues. This has led directly to the resignation of yet another valued officer, Baron Alain de Sevigny, and to the self-imposed exile of Lt. General le Vicomte Tournage. The Lieutenant-General holds himself responsible for allowing this situation to occur in the first place, in that he was Colonel of the regiment when the first transgression took place and feels that if he had taken more robust action then, that the Defendant would never have dared to embark upon his subsequent actions. EdB: So Your Grace considers the Defendant's refusals to comply with the regimental reorganization you have ordered, despite the fines levied previously for a similar transgression, to be mutinous in nature? PldE: Indeed I do, Commissioner. Such mutinous behavior is completely intolerable and is continuing to have dire effects on this once proud regiment. I do not wish to have an open mutineer in this or any other regiment, for mutiny is the most heinous treason which a soldier can commit. If the Defendant is found guilty as charged, as Minister of War I can but ask that he receive a severe enough penalty to deter any others who may think mutiny to be a rapid road to advancement over the heads of their more deserving brothers in arms. EdD: Thank you, Your Grace, that will be all. The prosecution now calls upon Baron Alain de Sevigny...
