George Pearson

The Escape of a Princess Pat George Pearson

Excerpt: ... the sergeant-major to have done would have been to have lied like a man; instead of which he piled horror on horror for his own countrymen. I have the facts and names of these cases. There will be many strange tales to come from these camps in the fulness of time. No doubt some will go against us, but the truth must be told at all costs, else the evil goes on and on. We were sent out one day to dig potato trenches on the moors in a terrible rain. We stuck our spades 123 in the ground and refused. The guards had French rifles of the vintage of 1870 which carried cartridges with bullets that were really slugs of lead. They began to load. A little unteroffizier tugged excitedly at his holster for the revolver. A big Canadian stepped up: "Wait a minute, mate." He reached down to the little man's waist and drew the gun. He offered it to its owner, butt forward, "Now go ahead and shoot, and we'll chop your damned heads off." The rest of us confirmed our leader's statement by gathering around threateningly and making gruesome and suggestive motions with our spades. There were two hundred of us and only forty guards. We meant business and they knew it. They took us back to the laager and locked us up. The following night, that of January 22nd, our guards were reinforced by thirty more. 124 CHAPTER XIV ToC Away Again Why the Prisoners Walked