The Cordova daily times., 1916-07-14
TELLS
 OF HIS MANY
 ESCAPES

H OI the AssOCtateu fTess.J - ocTBcdht Letor, of the 22sth French infantry, |! taken prisoner at the battle of Guise during the retreat of the French army from Charleroi has just given the de tails of his final escape from Germany after two unsuccessful attempts in one of which he had himself buried alive, and in the other recaptured by ruse after he had gotten into Dutch territory.
 After describing how he and his comrades were taken to prison in Germany, Letor says he saw his first chance when sent with a detachment of French prisoners to clear a piece of woods. Most of the work was simply digging ap stumps, and this suggested an idea. "I will throw my self into the excavation of one of the stumps." said to my comrades, "and when the sentinels back is turned you cover me with earth"
 "The morning of April caught the sentinel off his guard blowing at the fire trying to make it burn, while was working beside stump that had just been uprooted. I slipped into the hole face downward with a sack under by chin and a clump of ferns in front of my face to protect my mouth and serve as a sort of breath | ing pad; a few seconds later I felt the cold earth falling upon my feet and legs. After the lower part of my body had been covered, my comrades threw roots and branches over my head and shoulders to prevent me from suffocating.
 "I remained there until half past and weighing heavier and heavier upon me. At quarter past eleven one of the German sentinels walked straight over the earth that covered me. That was the last I knew until felt an atrocious burning sensation in one hand l had lost consciousness after the sentinel had walked over me, with my left hand just sticking out of the hole, but it was impossible to support the sunlight and I had to burrow again for a few moments.
 When I looked out again, my com rades were marching off to their bar racks; my opportunity had come. l had to be quick for 300 yards away the chief of the detachment of guards was counting the prisoners; in few minutes my disappearance would be known and the alarm given. I ran to marsh on the other side of the road that passed along the wood; then in order to put my pursuers off the scent, I ran toward mine in the di- rection opposite to that I was obliged to finally take. I showed myself to peasants travelling near that mine, then turning into a wood where l. was concealed from view, I took the opposite direction and made for Hol- land with the aid of a little pocket compass.
 Passing along beside a farm I saw some of my comrades who were em- ployed there, and observed that there was general agitation, from which l knew that the alarm had been given. then went toward the river Lippe, crossed the bridge and went straight through the town of Altern, conceal ing my visage from many persons l met by continually blowing my nose with my handkerchief. Speed was my principal preoccupation, silence the second. I took off my shoes and made thirty miles through the woods barefooted, over briars and branches that brought the blood after the first mile or two. I approached Borken, near the Dutch frontier, the next morning at o'clock, and as l neared the village I put my shoes on again and resolutely took the high road.
 "The first man met in crossing the village of Borken was a gendarme, who simply gazed at me. A few hun dred yards from the frontier met boy on a bicycle, who inspired me with more caution than any person had met. ran into little wood and concealed myself for half an hour When I came out another bicyclist came up behind me. jumped to the grounde and demanded, Your papers, T am a Hollander,' replied. I have no papers, A second bicyclist and a police dog followed, with people searching from all sides, and l was soon on the way back to the camp of Ceuualager