Evening star., 1917-03-18

Special Correspondence Of The Star.
PARIS, March 10, 1917.
= WRITE this thrilling escape In the
exact words of the eighteen-year-
old boy who accomplished it His
q person and the truth of his story
are certified by NJ. Fernand Neuray.
prominent Belgian editor who is living
in exile in Paris. The proper names
of persons and places are omitted. so as
not to incur reprisals on Belgian fam
lilies by the German invaders.
More than once l asked my parents
leave to go away. My father answered:
Wait a bit Your brothers are in the
army and you are all 1 have left. Per-
haps the war will not last much longer
"On the 1st of November. in the even
ing, I began again: Father, I was
eighteen years old yesterday. If
don't get away they will come some
day to the house and deport me. l
would rather take the risk. You are
not going to make me run away with
out your consents?
my father yielded We agreed that
I should leave on the 10th, in the even
ing, without mother knowing it You
can imagine how heavy my heart was
the evening I left, when I kissed her
as l always did. I learned afterward
that she suspected something from the
way l kissed her. Yet did all could
to hide my feelings. My eldest sister
was in the secret and she stayed with
mother while father accompanied me
from the door. Two of my mates were
waiting, one of them had been dis
pensed from military service before
the war because of a weak constitu-
tion. If I live hundred years. shall
night, the light in the window amid the
darkness, and fathers loving goodbye
on the threshold.
ITO get from Brussels to Maestricht
Gin Holland-less than eighty miles)
we took forty-eight days. All! know
in and out that land of Herve, which
I knew before only by its cheese There
Is not a path 1 have not threaded
twenty times with my ears stretched
to hear. ready to tumble into the ditch
or the bushes at the frs suspicious
noise. They assured US that at Liege
(sixty miles) we should easily find
means-not sure. indeed. for there are
none but not too risky-to get across
the frontier. Alas. We lost fifteen
days in vain, feverish efforts No one
except spies and traitors would agree
then to pass young men into Holland.
Tired out, we three resolved to take
our chances and risk all without a
guide, when a friend came to tell us
that a band of some 200 Belgians was
gathered near Il village of the Hol-
land frontier and, at price of gold, had
prepared safe escape.
You know how it ended. Spied and
betrayed, we came, on the evening of
December 6. up against fifty German
soldiers posted the other side of
IA
crazy to go forward. But how turn
back? For we saw behind US thirty
German soldiers marching up to cut
US off. There we were, caught in
trap. How can / tell you what ones
heart feels at such a moment? l would
have died on the spot rather than be
taken. The one of US whom we had
chosen to lead our column lost his head
still. thirty yards ahead of us. lifting
his arms and crying, bowling: Com
rades! Comrades!' Perhaps the poor
boy thought his supplication would
soften the Prussians' hearts. Oh. yes:
They had their guns aimed already. 1
shall hear all my life those soldiers
cries: va, ya-kamerades" they mock
ed, and the shooting began. The Ger
mans picked up thirty dead and wound
ed and they made thirty-seven prison
ers. Most of these were condemned to
death, but their penalty was committed
to twenty years confinement at hard
labor.
Il did not wait for the second shot,
as you may well guess, to take to my
legs. How did I ever escape the pa
trolls sent out at once in every direc-
ton? 1t must be that Providence had
pity on me. I let myself fall into
muddy ditch after jumping over a thorn
hedge with gymnastic skill I never
knew I possessed-and there ! could
hear their horses breathe. Cavalry and
infantry beat up the whole country un-
til morning, encouraging escn otner 70
the hunt Their cries sounded through
the ninht Now and then q gun would