Gaspar Ruiz — Joseph Conrad

Gaspar Ruiz however was not a deserter his mind was hardly active enough to take a discriminating view of the advantages or perils of treachery Why should he change sides He had really been made a prisoner had suffered ill usage and many privations Neither side showed tenderness to its adversaries There came a day when he was ordered together with some other captured rebels to march in the front rank of the Royal troops A musket had been thrust into his hands He had taken it He had marched He did not want to be killed with circumstances of peculiar atrocity for refusing to march He did not understand heroism but it was his intention to throw his musket away at the first opportunity Meantime he had gone on loading and firing from fear of having his brains blown out at the first sign of unwillingness by some noncommissioned officer of the King of Spain He tried to set forth these elementary considerations before the sergeant of the guard set over him and some twenty other such deserters who had been condemned summarily to be shot