drooping moustache slightly
sprinkled with gray and used two pairs of tortoise-shell glasses. When I
met him at The Pines in the Isle of Wight we had both been through the
Battle of the Somme and were recuperating from our siege amid the shell
holes and the mud. I CLAIMED to be an American, and he, as a _descendant
of the victor of Trafalgar_, scolded me roundly and _vicariously_ for
not forcing the United States into the war on the side of
Britain,--he'll remember _that_.... Perhaps it was because he DID
recognize me that he insisted on my being blindfolded and handled
roughly when I was led away.... The rest of the squad spoke FRENCH very
poorly.... They asked me a number of questions, to which I shook my
head; and, candidly, I could do so without doing violence to my
knowledge of idiomatic French!... I heard them say to one another, 'When
we get him to the stockade we'll see what he is made of.' 'Yes; a firing
squad'll be the best thing for ALL of them.' 'Certainly! we'll follow
Machiavelli's recommendation in _The Prince_,--EXTERMINATE the whole
race!' That's the idea! There should be no Louis XVIII bobbing up a
generation from now to overthrow the democracy.'... To be honest with my
conscience I felt creepy.... I really wanted to tell them that they had
got the WRONG FELLOW, but when I tried to speak my tongue felt so dry
and thick that I could not utter an audible word.... so I remained
involuntarily silent.... Well, on this flight I was more comfortable
than on the last; but I thought it would never end and I felt horribly
SEASICK.... Finally I was landed and hustled into a court made from the
ends of small logs pegged into the ground like an improvised
palisade,--it was in a little village....

"... There were hundreds of tatterdemalians of all nations in various
uniforms and smoking vile cigarettes, lounging carelessly around....
In a little while a dozen prisoners issued from a small guardhouse
in one corner of the enclosure and were conducted at the point of the
bayonet to the spot where I stood.... The officer of this firing squad
looked viciously at me and ordered me to '_fall in_.'... We were
then marched to the log wall about fifty paces to the left of the
guardhouse and commanded to 'about face.'... When we did so we saw
a firing squad of eighteen men in command of a Sergeant who gave
the order '_Prepare to fire!_'... At this point the officer stepped
forward and, addressing me personally, said: 'Do you