reds of French, British, Russians,
Poles, Serbians, and various other races who were now pouring in. Being
somewhat retiring in their nature the probability is that the priests
were overlooked and forgotten in that troublous maelstrom of outraged
humanity known far and wide as Sennelager Camp.

CHAPTER X

TYING PRISONERS TO THE STAKE--THE FAVOURITE PUNISHMENT

Until the coming of Major Bach at Sennelager confinement to cells
constituted the general punishment for misdemeanours, the sentence
varying according to the gravity of the offence. But mere solitary
confinement in a hole in which perpetual twilight prevailed during the
day did not coincide with Major Bach's principles of ruling with a rod
of iron. It was too humane; even the most savage sentence of "cells" did
not inflict any physical pain upon the luckless prisoner.

Major Bach was a past-master in the grim art of conceiving new and novel
methods to worry and punish those who were so unfortunate as to be under
his thumb. He was devilishly ingenious and fertile in the evolution of
ways and means to make us feel our position as acutely as possible. I
really think that he must have lain awake for hours at night thinking
out new schemes for inflicting punishment upon us, or else must have
been possessed of an excellent and comprehensive encyclopaedic dictionary
dealing with the uncanny and fiendish atrocities devised by the Chinese.
I do not doubt for a moment that, if he dared, he would have introduced
some of the most ferocious tortures which for centuries have been
characteristic of the Land of the Dragon. We were absolutely helpless
and completely in his hands. He knew this full well and consequently,
being a despot, he wielded autocratic power according to his peculiar
lights as only a full-blooded Prussian can.

One evening the French military prisoners were being marched into camp
at the conclusion of the day's work. Among them was a Zouave.
Half-starved from an insufficiency of food he could scarcely drag one
foot before the other. At last he dropped out from sheer fatigue. The
guard struck him with the butt end of his rifle and roughly ordered him
to get up and keep step and pace with his comrades. The Zouave pleaded
that he really could not walk another step because he felt so weak and
ill. The guard thereupon pulled the wretched prisoner to his feet and
gave him a heavy blow across his back.

This unwarranted action stung the Zouave to frenz