The Trumpeter Taken Prisoner
by
A Trumpeter, bravely leading on the soldiers, was captured by the enemy. He cried out to his captors: “Pray spare me, and do not take my life without cause or without injury. I have not slain a single man of your troop. I have no arms, and carry nothing but this one brass trumpet.” “That is the very reason for which you should be put to death,” they said, “for while you do not fight yourself, your loud trumpet stirs up all the other soldiers to battle.”
He who incites strife is as guilty as they who strive.