ring-party was drawn up in front of them with
loaded rifles, but not one of them flinched.

"They were told that unless they went to work they would be shot,
and although the firing-party was standing in front of them not
one of them would budge.

"The threat was not carried out, and they were sent back to the
Lager.

"Before we started getting parcels we had a terrible time trying
to live on the food they gave us. All they gave us was a cup of
coffee and two slices of black bread in the morning; and for
dinner and supper a basin of hot potato water. It was so thin and
weak it was just like water that potatoes had been boiled in."

The soldier whose statement is given above has since been exchanged to
Switzerland, owing to an injury to his sight, caused by the work he
was employed upon while a prisoner.

THE STORY OF PRIVATE ---- OF THE LEICESTER REGIMENT

"I was captured during the retreat in August, 1914.

"My Company was left behind as a rear-guard, to enable the rest
of the battalion to get away. Our trench was only about two feet
deep. Although the Germans were coming on very fast and in
enormous numbers, we were not allowed to retire.

"The Germans charged us three times. We lost all our officers,
and although we kept on fighting they came on in such large
numbers it must have been the main body, for they were all round
us, and most of the fellows were killed or wounded.

"They had their revenge on us, too, when they got us, for the
German soldiers who were told to look after us did terrible
things. They took us one by one and made us run the gauntlet.

"I was bruised all over when I got through, and so were the other
fellows.

"One chap when he was running the gauntlet was struck in the face
by the butt of a rifle; his nose was smashed and his face covered
in blood, and he fell to the ground insensible. They threw him in
a ditch, because they thought he was dead; but he was able to
crawl out next morning.

"It was awful, that first night, and they didn't know what to do
with us. They made us stand the whole night through in a loose
wire entanglement, so that we couldn't walk about or sit down;
and it rained like anything all night long.

"Then we were put in cattle trucks and sent into Germany, and for
the first two days they did not give us any food or water.

"On the second day w