Report on Desertions

Compiled as instructed, this report counts sixteen individuals who abandoned their posts without permission;

ten were never seen again. Of the six remaining, three were discovered drunk in taverns in civilian clothes

and punished; two reportedly joined the manumits; and the last — Klaus, who styles himself 'the Brave' —

deserves a fuller account. Accepted despite doubts about his fitness and given the lowliest duties,

he vanished; his corpse later turned up by chance in an outhouse, where he had apparently scrubbed

the filthy seat with such vigour that he tipped in and drowned amid the refuse. His name was struck

from the roster.