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Updated: May 10, 2025
Besides, you must remember that it was you who intervened so vigorously when that bounder, Sachar, threatened the Queen; therefore it was but natural that when those other johnnies began to protest against the illegality of your order for Sachar's arrest, her Majesty should at once invest you with the necessary authority to legalise your order.
Then Sachar, who occupied the place at the head of the table on the queen's right hand, rose to his feet and, addressing her Majesty, made a lengthy speech, in which he set forth, in considerable detail, all the reasons which had led up to the present action of the council, reminded her of her rejection of the first list presented, and in veiled dictatorial tones, ventured to express the hope that her Majesty would experience no difficulty in selecting a name from the list now about to be laid before her.
"My lords," he said, "it has just come to my ears and I thought that ye, and you in especial, my Lord Dick, in your capacity of Captain-General of the Queen's Bodyguard, ought to know that Sachar, together with the officer and the file of soldiers into whose custody ye delivered him, has disappeared." "Disappeared!" echoed Dick. "How mean ye, my Lord Lyga?" "Exactly as I have said," replied Lyga.
And now, each man anxious only to save his own skin, not only did the five of whom Nimri, Sachar's brother-in-law was one proceed to lay the blame of the whole affair upon Sachar, accusing him of influencing them by alternate bribes and threats, but they also testified against certain other nobles who, but for this, might have gone scot free and unsuspected; so that ultimately no less than eleven of Ulua's most powerful and ambitious nobles found themselves in danger of losing their heads in consequence of their ambition having o'erleaped itself.
The final result of this investigation was the discovery that at least five of the Council of Nobles, in addition to Sachar, had been implicated in the previous night's attack upon the Queen's Bodyguard, in the attempt to secure possession of the queen's person.
"And know ye what they mean, oh misguided adherents of the outlawed Sachar? They mean death to you! For your own sakes, therefore, I counsel you to return to your allegiance to the Queen, surrendering Sachar to me, a prisoner, to be tried and dealt with for his offence as the law of Ulua directs.
How, think ye, will it end?" "I will tell you," answered Lyga. "Knowing Sachar and his ambitions so intimately as I do, I think this is what has happened and will happen.
Several of the other nobles, however, anxious to curry favour with Sachar, hastened to his assistance, and strove unavailingly to break Dick's grip, while the captain of the guard, accompanied by a file of soldiers, having responded to Dick's call, now stood uncertainly by, at a loss to know whether or not he ought to obey the young Englishman's order to arrest a noble and member of the council.
The result of the trial was, under the circumstances, eminently satisfactory, considering that it was the first of the kind ever held in Ulua; for the judges, instructed by Earle and Dick, devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the task of administering strict justice, without regard to the position or personality of the accused; and the trial terminated with the condemnation of Sachar, Nimri, and two others to death, with the confiscation of all their property, while the remaining seven were punished in varying degrees, some by heavy fines, and others by more or less lengthy periods of penal labour.
The startling character of the entire episode, coupled with the suddenness and utter unexpectedness of its development, and the equally unexpected firmness and decision of character manifested by the young queen, exercised such a paralysing effect upon the members of council that, as with one accord, they sank back into their seats and in silence watched the arrest and removal of Sachar from the Council Chamber.
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