Many thanks to you all. Below you'll find the improved version of the song. I'm not completely sure about the one line, but 'ignorant' seems a very big improvement to me.

Wolfgang

FOR THE SAKE OF EXAMPLE

I was fourteen years old when I first started running
And for two years I lived on a seaman's poor wage
'Til I met with a sergeant who said I'd do better
So I joined up by adding two years to my age.

In the winter I found I was scared stiff of dying
Up to me knees in mud and in snow
And I knew then it wasn't just me who was lying
And I wish that I'd heard someone say: Don't you go.

So I ran and I crawled I swam and I stumbled
Away from the sound, the smells and the sights
And I got past the barbed wire, the redcaps and bullies
that be stationed behind us to help us to fight.

For six days and more I kept moving westward
Walking by night and hiding by day
'Til at last in the barn of a farmer I trusted
For the price of a shilling I was given away.

They took me away many miles from the frontline
And the court-martial's justice was promised to me
But the colonel and major who'd never seen fighting
Both told me that only a coward would flee.

Then I heard someone say they were shooting deserters
The first time in years I made myself wet
And I started to run to escape from the escorts
If they hadn't shot at me I'd be running yet.

It's three months and more in the cellar they kept me
Tomorrow at dawn when I'm just turned eighteen
I'll have grown old enough to be made an example
An example that ignorant men (won't) want to leave

For the sake of example just as an example
That was the reason they gave to the boy
For the sake of example just as an example
To encourage the others his final employ.