Ready--present--"

"Stop!"

An aged man had approached the group. He was out of breath with
running. The firing-party paused, and lowered their rifles.

"Do not listen to him!" shouted the Accused. "And if he will not
desist, shoot him too--shoot us both."

"You exceed your duties, Sirrah," said the Commander-in-Chief, with
some severity--for discipline was strict in the Italian Army. "It is
for me to command, not you!" The Prisoner lowered his head at the just
reproof, and then his superior officer continued, "Why do you ask us
to desist?"

"Because the Prisoner is innocent. He acted from the best of motives.
I was the proprietor of the shop he sacked, and I (for, after all, I
am a patriot) demand his pardon!"

"You!" exclaimed the Commander-in-Chief. "Surely you ought to be the
last to urge such a plea. We do not know what your shop contained, but
presume that the contents was your property."

"You are right in the presumption," acquiesced the aged man; "but
these documents will show that he was right, from a military point of
view, to sack my shop."

The Commander-in-Chief hastily glanced at the papers, and with a
thrill of pleasure, ordered his favourite General to be released.