Aesop's Fables
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
inquiry. I have not
slain a single man of your troop. I have no arms, and carry nothing but this one
brass trumpet."
His captors replied, "That is the very reason for which you should be put to death," they said; "for, while you do not fight yourself, your trumpet stirs all the others to battle."