of the victor of Trafalgar_, scolded me roundly and _vicariously_ for
not forcing the United States into the war on the side of
Britain,--he'll remember _that_.... Perhaps it was because he DID
recognize me that he insisted on my being blindfolded and handled
roughly when I was led away.... The rest of the squad spoke FRENCH very
poorly.... They asked me a number of questions, to which I shook my
head; and, candidly, I could do so without doing violence to my
knowledge of idiomatic French!... I heard them say to one another, 'When
we get him to the stockade we'll see what he is made of.' 'Yes; a firing
squad'll be the best thing for ALL of them.' 'Certainly! we'll follow
Machiavelli's recommendation in _The Prince_,--EXTERMINATE the whole
race!' That's the idea! There should be no Louis XVIII bobbing up a
generation from now to overthrow the democracy.'... To be honest with my
conscience I felt creepy.... I really wanted to tell them that they had
got the WRONG FELLOW, but when I tried to speak my tongue felt so dry
and thick that I could not utter an audible word.... so I remained
involuntarily silent.... Well, on this flight I was more comfortable
than on the last; but I thought it would never end and I felt horribly
SEASICK.... Finally I was landed and hustled into a court made from the
ends of small logs pegged into the ground like an improvised
palisade,--it was in a little village....

"... There were hundreds of tatterdemalians of all nations in various
uniforms and smoking vile cigarettes, lounging carelessly around....
In a little while a dozen prisoners issued from a small guardhouse
in one corner of the enclosure and were conducted at the point of the
bayonet to the spot where I stood.... The officer of this firing squad
looked viciously at me and ordered me to '_fall in_.'... We were
then marched to the log wall about fifty paces to the left of the
guardhouse and commanded to 'about face.'... When we did so we saw