FABLE LXXIV.
Reading edition
THE TRUMPETER TAKEN PRISONER.
A Trumpeter, being taken prisoner in a battle, begged hard for quarter, declaring his innocence, and protesting that he neither had nor could kill any man, bearing no arms but only a trumpet, which he was obliged to sound at the word of command. "For that reason," replied his enemies, "we are determined not to spare you; for though you yourself never fight, yet with that wicked instrument of yours, you blow up animosity between other people, and so become the occasion of much bloodshed."
MORAL.
The hand may rest quiet by the side, and yet the tongue be the means of doing more injury than a thousand hands.