sing the time may sound extremely
childish to readers, but it must be remembered that there was nothing
else for us to do unless we were content to sit down with our chins in
our hands, with the corners of our mouths drooping, and our faces
wearing the expression of undertakers' mutes. Had we not participated in
the admittedly infantile amusements we should have gone mad.

When we had demolished our food reserves and were utterly dependent upon
the prison diet, we speedily began to betray signs of our captivity and
deprivations. We petitioned for permission to purchase food from outside
but this met with a curt refusal. Eventually the prison authorities
relented and we were permitted to purchase our mid-day meal from a
restaurant, for which privilege by the way we were mulcted very heavily.

During the day we were permitted to stretch our limbs in the exercise
yard for about fifteen minutes. No steel-bound rules and regulations
such as I had experienced at Wesel prevailed here. We were free to
intermingle and to converse as we pleased. This relaxation was keenly
anticipated and enjoyed because it gave us the opportunity to exchange
reminiscences. We learned enough during this brief period to provide
material for further topics of conversation. This, however, was the
experience of our party. Others fared worse and were shut up in single
cells in which, as I had previously done at Wesel, they were compelled
to pace.

We only shared the large underground cell together at night because of
its sleeping accommodation. We were shut in separate cells during the
day, which prevented interchange of conversation and inter-amusement
during the day except in the exercise yard. But solitary confinement was
rare, and in the majority of cases we learned that the aliens were
placed in small parties of four or five in a single cell. After a few
days our party was swelled by five new arrivals from different parts of
Germany. We were a cosmopolitan crowd, comprising every strata of
society, from wealthy men down to stable lads. One boisterous spirit, a
Cockney, confessed far and wide that he had once suffered imprisonment
at home for horse-stealing, and he did not care a rap for anything or
anybody. He was always bubbling over with exuberant merriment and was
one of those who can project every situation into its relative humorous
perspective. Another prisoner was an Englishman who had been resident in
Germany for twenty-five years, and a