After a hasty consultation with his client, Duc Alain de Mylcandonai, Captain Ho once more addresses the court.
"May it please Your Majesty, since Commissioner leBlanc has yet to reappear with his forgotten notes, so as not to waste any more of Your Majesty's valuable time I will rebutt the remaining charges against His Grace le Duc de Mylcandonai, as I understand them, without benefit of hindsight. "The docket states two counts of treasonous slander against the Crown. "If it may please the Court, I will begin my rebuttal of these charges of 'treasonous slander' by recalling le Duc de Mylcandonai to take the stand and by reading from the codex of the Laws of France regarding Slander, which is defined therein thusly "Defamation in some transient form, as by spoken words, gestures etc." The Commissioner has offered no evidence of this whatsoever. Just to clarify matters, however, has Your Grace ever defamed His Majesty by spoken words, gestures etc" "Indeed I have not! In fact, I have never heard of _anyone_ defaming His Majesty verbally until this very day, when I feared the Commissioner might be wont to do so." "Perhaps, then, what the Commissioner really means is 'libel', which is defined as "The publication of defamatory matter in permanent form, as by a written or printed public statement, picture, etc." ? After a brief silence, Chevalier Ivin continued. "As the evidence clearly shows, however, the letter the Commissioner submitted in evidence and from which he intended to slanderously read is clearly marked CONFIDENTIAL and, as such, was never meant for any eyes other than those of the Governor to whom it was addressed - far less for publication. " Since it is perfectly plain that His Grace le Duc de Mylcandonai is guilty of neither slander _nor_ libel I submit that there is no case to answer regarding these charges and request that they be expunged. "It must be admitted however, Your Grace, that the letter which has been submitted in evidence, whose autheniticy and authorship you freely attest to, does seem to imply a certain amount of disloyalty to His Majesty. 'Accusing His Majesty of being blackmailed' as the Commissioner would charge you, for instance?" "Being blackmailed is not a crime, Chevalier, and not, therefore, something with which anyone can be 'accused' of. It is the _act_ of blackmailing which is the crime. If there is any fault here, it is that despite becoming aware (albeit by underhand and probably illegal means) of the possibility that His Majesty _might_ be being blackmailed the Commissioner made no attempt whatsoever to investigate the possibility or to uncover the possible blackmailer. Indeed, if such a blackmailer exists, it is difficult to see how the Commissioner might have better protected him from detection than by bringing the gentleman first suspecting his existance before this court on a spurious treason charge!" "And what about the speculation concerning bestiality?" Duc de Mylcandonai coloured somewhat before answering. "This was nothing but a private joke - and _not_ one at His Majesty's expense. Bestial practices amongst their regimental enemies, the Queens' Own, are a constant source of speculation in the Dragoon Guards mess - a veiled allusion to our shared days spent in the ranks of the latter regiment which Vicomte Tournage would have grasped immediately. Having served only in the infantry (and in the less prestigious infantry regiments at that), it comes as no surprise that the Commissioner failed completely to understand its true meaning." "And what of the question of paternity." "As stated in the letter, such rumours have been persistent in Court circles for years and, given the threat to the stability of the Crown and Realm which they represent, they are by no means an inappropriate area of concern for His Majesty's First Minister. In wilfully giving them far more credence than I suspect they deserve - by submitting them publicly as evidence in His Majesty's presence in this very Court - the Commissioner has been most remiss in his duties to the Crown, I feel." "Thank you, Your Grace. You have demonstrated to my own satisfaction - and I trust to that of the Court - that no disloyalty can be implied by the private statements wilfully publicised by the Commissioner. (The wilful bringing of these private statements into the public domain, as the Commissioner has just insisted upon doing, is another matter entirely). I repeat my request that they be expunged from the Court record. Duc de Mylcandonai has no case to answer regarding these spurious allegations of 'slander'." "The Commissioner has also charged my client of embezzlement of the King's funds. "Embezzlement from the King's funds is indeed a serious matter. As with any crime, however, it is necessary to outline the motive, means and opportunity to commit such a crime in order prove guilt. So, let us begin with motive. The obvious motive for embezzlement is, of course, poverty or an inability to live within one's means. So, Your Grace, perhaps you would be kind enough to tell us of any outstanding debts which you may have?" "I have no outstanding debts, Chevalier, and have been in credit these four years or more. Indeed, I am a creditor to many gentlemen - both alive and dead - to the tune of several thousands of crowns." "So, what about living beyond your means? Your well publicised gambling losses of 18,000 crowns a couple of months ago, for example. How is it possible for you to finance such expenditure?" "In addition to gaining a considerable amount of loot at the front (where I spent a large proportion of my time until becoming a government minister), from my arrival in Paris I have always invested as much as I was able in Arms - not, primarily, to profit by this but to ensure that His Majesty's armies were as well equiped as possible. The fact that virtually the whole army has seen action over these past years has nevertheless meant that the returns from these investments have been considerable. Despite my recent losses - and I must emphasise that I had invariably been lucky at the tables until then - I still have the means to live very comfortably." "So, you have no motive for embezzlement? Nevertheless, for the sake of argument let us suppose that Your Grace is an incurably greedy individual who would, on principle, embezzle as much as possible if the opportunity ever presented itself. The positions in which it is possible to embezzle from the Crown are those of Minister of Finance and Quartermaster-General. Which of these offices have you held in the course of your career, Your Grace?" "Neither, Chevalier. The appointments I have held during the course of my career are aide to General and Field Marshal, Army Adjutant, Brigade Commander, Inspector-General of Cavalry, Adjutant General, Division Commander, Minister of War, Army Commander and Minister of State. None of these appointments offer any possibility for embezzling." "And thus no opportunity do so. Thank you, Your Grace. It seems obvious that the charges of embezzlement are as spurious as all others offered by the prosecution so far. Since Marquis de Success has already testified that you have received no monies from colonial sources I have no alternative but to request that these charges are also dropped. The defence rests upon this issue. "The final charge brought against le Duc de Mylcandonai is that of the murder of Chevalier Noir le Blanc, a former Commissioner of Public Safety. "Murder brings us once again to the three elements which it is necessary to establish in order to prove a crime: motive, means and opportunity. "So, what possible motive could Inspector-General of Cavalry, the then Comte de Mylcandonai have for wishing the relatively obscure Major le Chevalier Noir leBlanc dead? Perhaps you would care to enlighten us, Your Grace?" "I hardly knew the man, Chevalier. We certainly never met socially. According to army records he joined the Queens Own in January 1671. At the time I was serving as Army Adjutant, and two months later I took command of the Horse Guards Brigade. At this stage in my military career I had little to do in the field with any ranks below Lieutenant-Colonel - a rank which Chevalier Noir never attained." "But is it not true, Your Grace, that in the month of his death, Major leBlanc had been appointed as Commissioner by Duc Senior - a man who was to make a career of hounding you?" "Indeed it is. I had no inkling that any difficulties would arise with Duc Senior at that time, however. Such difficulties arose only when I became Adjutant-General, a circumstance which did not occur until some months after Major leBlanc's death. If, for the sake of argument, I was of a murderous bent, there were far better candidates for my attention serving with the Horse Guards Brigade at that time. The most likely candidate for such ire would have been Monsieur Grosscanard after his appalling treatment of my poor sister Nicole - but he is still walking Paris as a free man. Indeed, I believe I see him standing in the stalls now in the hope seeing me join the ranks of convicted traitors with him." All eyes look to the back of room, to where Grosscanard is openly smiling. "Well then" continued Captain Ho. "Let us to turn to means. Since Major LeBlanc died of wounds received in battle, any soldier in His Majesty's army would have the means of inflicting them - which is not particularly helpful. Is it not true, however, that you also had the means of ensuring that Major leBlanc was sent to the front where he might receive them?" "No, Chevalier, it is not. As Inspector-General of Cavalry I no longer had any power to volunteer units for the front. It is true that I strongly suggested to Duc de Wich, who was commanding the Queens and the Brigade at the time, that he send the 1st Squadron of that regiment to the front so that Grosscanard was compelled to finish his sentence of banishment. Major leBlanc was serving with the third squadron, however, and the fact that the then Brigadier de Wich decided to take the whole brigade to the front that month was none of my doing whatsoever." "So, what of opportunity. Were you at the front that month, Your Grace, and thus in a position to arrange that a stray ball took the life of Major leBlanc?" "No Chevalier. I spent the month in Paris. In the first week I hosted a prenuptual celebration for Vicomte Rougeur Homard and my sister Nicole, and in the third week I attended their wedding - as guests at both events will doubtless testify." "So, Your Grace, if you murdered Major leBlanc you would have had to conspire with others in order to do so. Was there anyone serving with the brigade who might have been capable of murdering at your command?" "Indeed, there were three 'gentlemen' serving with the brigade at that time whom I have no doubt would have been capable of murder. All of these either had been or would be found guilty of treason to His Majesty. Where Grosscanard and du Pain are concerned, however, I had had already been instrumental in in their convictions and, consequently, I think it very unlikely that either would murder for me as a favour." Guffaws around the court. "The third such candidate was Oeufs Brouilles, who already secretly bore the hatred for me which would ultimately lead him to a traitor's death." "I see, Your Grace. So, to sum up, you had no motive whatsoever to murder Major leBlanc. Every soldier in the army had the means to do so, but you took no steps to have him sent to the front. Being in Paris meant you had no opportunity to commit the murder yourself and to expect any of those capable of such dark a deed to have done so at your request is to enter the realms of fantasy. "Yet the Commissioner firmly believes that you did, on the evidence of an almost illegible slip of paper he himself claims to have found at scene and claims (despite its obvious disfigurement) to have been written by his deceased cousin. "I would respectfully submit to the court that this means absolutely nothing. Let me read it out for all to hear: 'I have found . . . . witnesses . . . . evidence of corruption and . . . . even in the Ins . .General . . .return to Paris . . . .' What are we to make of this? 'I have found several witnesses willing to give evidence of corruption and this can be found even in the Inspector General of Infantry's Office. I must return to Paris...' perhaps? Or what about 'I have found several witnesses willing to give evidence of military corruption and since this treachery is unknown even in the Inspector General of Cavalry's Office I must return to Paris...' ? "It could mean any of a thousand different things, and as such is evidence of absolutely nothing. "As I trust Your Majesty will appreciate, I have now demonstrated that none of these so-called 'charges' against my client have any basis in fact whatsoever. I would respectfully petition Your Majesty _not_ to find my client innocent of these charges, but to dismiss them out of hand in order that le Duc de Mylcandonai, surely one your Majesty's most loyal and devoted subject, is spared the shame of knowing that his loyalty has ever been brought into question. If it please Your Majesty, the defence rests." _______________________________________________ Banana mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.humf.su.se/mailman/listinfo/banana
