BDP: "Your Honor, if I may, I will address the charges." "I did not override any regimental standing orders. There never were any. If you ask the dear Brevet Lieutenant-General le Comte Alain de Mylcandonai, he will tell you he himself jump over the now Colonel to become Colonel. So did the now retired Tournage. So jumping over other officers has been an accepted form of advancement. Also, I would like to point out that said Captain fully admitted to forgetting to send the request for promotion. Under battlefield conditions, this could cost France much more if an officer forgot to send such an important notice. "As all in the Dragoon Guards like to point out, we are a fighting regiment and I take that to mean not only on the battlefield but in every aspect of life. So we fight for rank. Maybe not with sword but with pen. For your inspection, I would like to submit the signed purchase order from the Colonel accepting said payment for the regiment. Since he signed off on payment, he must have read it. For not to read an important document like this would be dereliction of duty, and I would never think the Colonel would do that. Also that private letter to Major Coward de Custaad was to remind him to fill out the other forms before we went into battle. People get promoted quickly at the front and I wouldn't want him to miss his chance. I also filled out the proper forms since we can't let the ranks fall apart in the heat of battle. As to giving the first to the Major Coward de Custaad I agreed and you may ask him yourself. I never received any orders from the colonel telling me to take command of the third. "I would have thought this would have been settled since the colonel proposed that fine which I paid in full. As to my performance at the front, I would like to point out that we did not lose any men and I was mentioned at the front. "If this does not prove that I am innocent, then I would like to enter into evidence the body of my double which is to blame for all the troubles of France. I hear there is a rash of them going around."
