The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1914-10-02
D0DG|NG THE ENEMY
Daring Escape Of Two Guards
men Who Had Been Wounded.
British Captain and Corporal. Held
Prisoners In Convent, Crossed
Fifty Miles of Country oeeu-
pied by Germans.
international News servlce.)

international News Servlee.)
Folkestone, England.-How two Brit
ish soldiers, captain and corporal.
or the Dragon guards escaped from
a convent hospital. where they were
held prisoners by the Germans after
being seriously wounded. was told by
one OF them when they arrived here
from Ostend.
They had crossed fifty miles OF coun-
try occupied by the enemy and got
safely by their outposts. The corporal
told the story quite casually. as II II
were an ordinary adventure.
After fighting at Mons and Tournai,
he was wounded at Andregnies. He
took refuge in a peasants house.
where he found about twenty other
wounded comrades. The Germans
started to shell the place." he. said,
"and we all took refuge in the cellar
The old Belgian woman. to whom the
place belonged. would not keep quiet
Presently the Germans entered the vii
lage and came straight to the house.
They broke In the door with their
rifles. saw the butts coming through
the panels, and as they burst In the
door ! held up my hands-there was
nothing else TO do. A German soldier
came at me and though he must have
seen that was wounded he lifted his
rife by the breech and came for me. I
received the blow on my forearm-it
was meant for my head.
Then the old woman made bolt
for the window. One of our chaps
tried to stop her. He got bayonet
through his hand The old woman was
shot We were all taken prisoners.
They searched me and took away all
OF my money. / have seen dead Ger
mans on the field with bags OF money
round their necks.
with the rest Of the wounded I
was taken TO a convent inside the Ger
man lines. found my own captain
there. He had been found unconscious
on the field. A shrapnel shell had ex-
ploded In front OF him. and the fumes
had sent him off. He had a slight
wound on the forehead from the shfap-
mel.
They left the convent unguarded.
being confident. suppose, that we
could not escape through their lines.
We had been there a day or two when
we saw them sending up a guard.
This is the time to escape II we are
going to- said the captain.
"We got out without difficulty, and
lay for ten hours in ambush behind a
hedge Then we set out to get through
the lines. The captain had a map OF
the country and a damaged pair OF
compasses which we patched up with
dough. The map enabled him to know
exactly where we were.
I'VE lay low all day and travelled by
night, covering q miles OF ground
each night by crawling almost fiat
and running bent almost double when
we found cover. We had no sleep for
as hours. Often we had to make a
long detour to avoid their outposts or
swampy ground. We went over rail-
way embankments and through cut
tings and twice we had TO cross
canals.
Once we attempted TO swim but
found our clothes too heavy TO carry.
so we made for a bridge. It was
guarded by 20 Germans. We crept up
TO within ten or twelve yards, and
then the captain made Kissing sound
We lay and listened, but there was no
reply
Creeping nearer we made the sound
again. Still there was no response
We came still nearer and looked up
very carefully. The sentry on our side
Of the bridge was asleep. We crept
past him and over the bridge The
whole guard was asleep. The second
time We crossed the canal was by
pontoon which they had left un.
guarded.
"once we got clear of their lines we
had no further difficulty. The Bel
CLANS assisted us all they could 20
get TO Ostend. We found everywhere
indications OF the German brutality.
They had burned down houses wher-
ever the people had no money or food
10 give them"