what looked like a big reformatory
or hospital. I believe it had been a home for destitute children.
There were sentries at the gate and massive concentric circles of
barbed wire through which we passed under an arch that was let down
like a portcullis at nightfall. The lieutenant showed his permit, and
we ran the car into a brick-paved yard and marched through a lot more
sentries to the office of the commandant.

He was away from home, and we were welcomed by his deputy, a pale young
man with a head nearly bald. There were introductions in German which
our guide translated into Dutch, and a lot of elegant speeches about
how Germany was foremost in humanity as well as martial valour. Then
they stood us sandwiches and beer, and we formed a procession for a
tour of inspection. There were two doctors, both mild-looking men in
spectacles, and a couple of warders--under-officers of the good old
burly, bullying sort I knew well. That was the cement which kept the
German Army together. Her men were nothing to boast of on the average;
no more were the officers, even in crack corps like the Guards and the
Brandenburgers; but they seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of
hard, competent N.C.O.s.

We marched round the wash-houses, the recreation-ground, the kitchens,
the hospital--with nobody in it save one chap with the 'flu.' It
didn't seem to be badly done. This place was entirely for officers,
and I expect it was a show place where American visitors were taken.
If half the stories one heard were true there were some pretty ghastly
prisons away in South and East Germany.

I didn't half like the business. To be a prisoner has always seemed to
me about the worst thing that could happen to a man. The sight of
German prisoners used to give me a bad feeling inside, whereas I looked
at dead Boches with nothing but satisfaction. Besides, there was the
off-chance that I might be recognized. So I kept very much in the
shadow whenever we passed anybody in the corridors. The few we met
passed us incuriously. They saluted the deputy-commandant, but
scarcely wasted a glance on us. No doubt they thought we were
inquisitive Germans come to gloat over them. They looked fairly fit,
but a little puffy about the eyes, like men who get too little
exercise. They seemed thin, too. I expect the food, for all the
commandant's talk, was nothing to boast of. In one room people were
writing letters. It was a big place with only a t