t fallen
by the wayside. Yet, although footsore, weary, worn, and hungry they
retained their characteristic composure. In silence they discussed their
frugal evening meal of lukewarm black acorn coffee and black bread. Some
of us, out of sheer sympathy, secured some "broetchen" for them, but they
accepted our expressions of fellow-feeling very sparingly, although with
extreme thankfulness.

They refused to say a word about their sufferings or the agonies they
had experienced during their labour and long walk. I got the story from
one of the guards who had accompanied them. But even these thick-skinned
disciples of "kultur" and brutality were not disposed to be
communicative. The stoicism, grim determination and placidity of the
Reverend Fathers constituted something which their square heads and
addled brains failed to understand. They had never experienced the like.

While Major Bach never repeated the senseless pit-digging and refilling
programme for the priests, his invention was by no means exhausted.
Direct incentive to rebellion proving completely abortive he now
resorted to indirect pettifogging and pin-pricking tactics, harassing
the unfortunate priests at every turn, depriving them of food or
something else, reducing their rations, giving them the most repulsive
work he could discover, and so forth. But it was all to no purpose.
Those twenty-two priests beat him at every turn. For Major Bach to try
to break their proud spirit was like asking a baby to bend a bar of
steel!

What ultimately became of these prisoners I cannot say. In fact, I do
not think there is any one who can definitely relate their fate. Other
prisoners now commenced to arrive in increasing numbers and the
breaking-in of these crowds to the tyranny and brutal existence of
Sennelager Camp appeared to demand the complete attention of the
authorities. Certainly the new arrivals provided Major Bach with all the
entertainment he desired.

Some say that the priests were distributed among other camps; others
that one or two succumbed to the persistent ill-treatment meted out to
them; and still more that they are yet at Sennelager. No one can say
precisely. Only one fact remains. For a time they occupied the sole
attention of every one in the camp because they constituted the most
prominent target for the fiendish devilry of Major Bach. Then they
suddenly appeared to slip into oblivion. The probability is that they
were swallowed up among the hund