He came slowly forward to the table, and stood beside it with hanging head. I tore the leaf from the book and pushed it over to him. “Take it,” I ordered.

“To the commander?” he asked. “I am to take it to the commander?”

I shook my head. “Read it.”

He stared at it vacantly, turning it now this way, now that.

“Did you forget how to read when you forgot all else?” I said sternly.

He read, and the color rushed into his face.

“It is your freedom,” I said. “You are no longer man of mine. Begone, sirrah!”

He crumpled the paper in his hand.