This frees `ce` would be leaking in the error path.

Additionally a free is moved towards the return. This helps code
readability as we often have this pattern of freeing resources just
before return/exit and not in between the code.
Signed-off-by: NStefan Beller <sbeller@google.com>
Signed-off-by: NJunio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>