ties for officers and
men. No matter how fast or how far a German army moves, a completely
equipped telegraph office is ready for the army commander five minutes
after headquarters have been established.

At St. Benoit a party of some 300 French prisoners was encountered,
waiting outside headquarters. They were all fine young fellows, in
striking contrast to the elderly reservist type which predominates in
the German prison camps. They were evidently picked troops of the line,
and were treated almost with deference by their guards, a detachment of
bearded Landwehr men from South Germany. They were the survivors of the
garrison of Fort Camp des Romains, who had put up such a desperate and
spirited defense as to win the whole-hearted admiration and respect of
the German officers and men. Their armored turrets and cemented
bastions, although constructed after the best rules of fortification of
a few years ago, had been battered about their ears in an unexpectedly
short time by German and Austrian siege artillery. Their guns were
silenced, and trenches were pushed up by an overwhelming force of
pioneers and infantry to within five yards of their works before they
retreated from the advanced intrenchments to the casemates of the fort.
Here they maintained a stout resistance, and refused every summons to
surrender. Hand grenades were brought up, bound to a backing of boards,
and exploded against the openings into the casemates, filling these with
showers of steel splinters. Pioneers, creeping up to the dead angle of
the casemates, where the fire of the defenders could not reach them,
directed smoke tubes and stinkpots against apertures in the citadel,
filling the rooms with suffocating smoke and gases.

"Have you had enough?" the defenders were asked, after the first smoke
treatment.

"No!" was the defiant answer.

The operation was repeated a second and third time, the response to the
demand for surrender each time growing weaker, until finally the
defenders were no longer able to raise their rifles, and the fort was
taken. When the survivors of the plucky garrison were able to march out,
revived by the fresh air, they found their late opponents presenting
arms before them in recognition of their gallant stand. They were
granted the most honorable terms of surrender, their officers were
allowed to retain their swords, and on their march toward an honorable
captivity they were everywhere greeted with expressions of respec