22
The chamber on the top floor of the stone fortress had a scent of oiled leather and wig talcum. Half a dozen Highlanders led by Corporal Buchanan, betraying no sign of their sleepless night spent with Duncan and Woolford, stood in rigid attention at the back of the room as Major Robert Rogers, freshly shaven and in a clean uniform, was escorted before the stern triumvirate of judges. Horatio Beck, bruised but washed and well groomed in his lieutenant’s uniform, sat at a table on the right, beside a nervous young officer who was apparently the prosecutor. Duncan, Woolford, and Conawago sat at the back. Sitting alone on the other side was Robert Livingston, whose beefy countenance had grown deeply worried, almost stricken, when he saw Duncan.
Presiding Judge Colonel Hazlitt called the c
