The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-06-27


 treat of the French army from Char 9eroi, has just given the details of his faI escape from Germany after two i unsuccessful attempts, in one Of which he had himself buried alive, and in the other recaptured by ruse after he had gotten into Dutch terri l tory. 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 up stumps, and this suggested an idea. '' T will throw myself into 1 the excavation of one of the stufnps,' I said to my comrades, and when the sentineTs back. is turned you will cover me with earth
 f"The morning of April 9, caught the sentinel off his guard PloWlng at esfire. trying to make it burn, while I was working beside a stump that had been uprooted. I slipped into the hole fact downward with sack un der my chin and a clump of ferns in front of my face to protect my mouth and serve as a sort of a breathing pad. A few seconds lateN felt the cold earth falling upon my feet and legs. After the lower part of my body had been covered1 my comrades threw roots and branches over my head and shoulders to prevent me from suffocating.
 "I remained there until half past eleven, the earth settling all the time and weighing heavier and heavier upon me. At a quarter past eleven one of the German sentinels walked straight over the earth that covered me. That was the last knew until I felt an atrocious burning sensation in ha6 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 had to burrow again for a few moments.
 'fWhen looked out again, my com rades were marching off to their bar racks; my opportunity had come. I had to be quick for 300 yards away the chief of the detachment of guards was counting the prisoners; in a few minutes my disappearance would be known and the alarm given. I ran to a 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 direction opposite to that was oblig- ed to finally take. showed myself to peasants travelling near that mine. then turning into a. wood where was concealed from view, I took the 6p- posite direction and made for Hol- land, with the aid of little pocket compass.
 Passing along beside a farm, I saw some of my comrades who were employed there, and observed that there was general agitation, from | which I knew that the alarm had been given. I then went toward the river Lippe, crossed the bridge and went straight through the town of AL 1 tern, concealing my visage from many persons I met by continually blowing } my nose with my handkerchief. Speed WAS my principal Nccupation, silence ! the second. Ittook off my shoes and made 30 nfleA through the woods barefooted, over briars and branches that brought the blood after-the first mile or two. I approached Borken 1 linear the Dutch frontier the next morning at 5 o'clock, and as I neared the village I put my shoes on again and resoIutely took the high road. ! x t'The first man I met in crossing the village of Borken was a gen. dar,e2e who simply gazed at me. A few hundred yards from the frontier
 I met boy on a bicycle, who inspired me with more caution than any per son T had met. I ran into little
 wood and concealed myself for a ha1f 1 hour. When I came out another bicyclist came up behind me, jumped to the ground and demanded Your
 papers, T am a Hollander,' T. re-
 piled. T have no papers, A second bicyclist and a police dog followed Ewith people, searching from all sides
 and I was soon on the way back to
 the camp of Senne1ager.
 'tOnce returned to Sennelager, my
 first idea was to prepare a new plan of escape together with Corporal Brousset. Besides getting out of the 1T barracks which was easy, we had this
 time to get over lines of barbed wire { two and half yards in height in
 three lines, the second of which had
 a sort of metallic tre1lis in the middle
 through which passed an electric
 current of 10000 volts. Brousset went ahead on this occasion. We crept as
 closely to the< Aground as we could un-
 til we got to the barbed wire. Brous-
 set cut the first line, and we were ap-
 preaching the ~ electrified obstacle. N1ppers were no here, but the
 trel1is was fixed upon posts, leaving
 about a foot of space underneath
 Brousset went first and I watched
 his breathless1y until he drew his foot
 safely from under the wire on the
 other side. Then I followed still
 holding my breath, until I also had
 gone under the dangerous barrier.
 ''The most difficult work. had not
 been done; on the other side. of the
 three barbed wire lines were the sil-
 houttes of two sentinels scarcely 20
 yarsd away. When we got through
 the barbed wire, we were in plain
 view of them and had nothing to do
 but make a sprint for a cIump of bushes nearby. We Succeeded in reaching them without being observ-
 ed. The sentineIs went away, and we took up our journey toward the frontier Three peasants chased us in the morning for hour, until we finally threw them off our tracks in a
 wood. Near .Belefe1d two hunters set their dogs upon us. For this eventu- ality we had provided ourselves with pepper, which proved effective. We avoided the village of Rheines by fol- l lowing a route of the woods and