unmercifully with my fists and he began to howl somewhat vociferously.
His comrades were too surprised at my unexpected rebellion to extend
assistance, until at last their dull wits took in the situation. I
caught a glimpse of one of the soldiers grasping his rifle. I saw it
flash in the air--I remembered no more.

When I awoke I was lying stark naked upon the floor of my cell. My head
was racking and throbbing like a hammer. Raising my hand to my forehead
I sharply withdrew it. It was quite wet, and as I looked more closely, I
saw that it was blood. I felt again and found my face clotted and my
hair reeking wet from a ragged wound on the head. Evidently the soldier
whose rifle I had seen swinging through the air, had brought it down
heavily upon my skull, felling me like an ox. How long I had lain
unconscious I never knew, but it must have been for some time, judging
from the quantity of blood I had lost, which was partially congealed on
my face, neck and shoulders. I shivered with the cold and collecting my
senses I commenced to dress my wound. For bandages I had to tear my
shirt to ribbons. I swabbed the ragged wound as well as I could, and
then bound it up. Weary and faint from loss of blood I dressed myself
with extreme difficulty and then proceeded to examine my present abode.

We are familiar with the cramped quarters at the Tower of London into
which our mediæval sovereigns were wont to thrust our ancestors who fell
foul of authority. Wesel Prison is the German counterpart of our famous
quondam fortress-prison. The cells are little, if any, larger than those
in the Tower, and are used to this day. My residence measured about nine
feet in length by about four and a half feet in width, and was
approximately ten feet in height--about the size of the entrance hall in
an average small suburban residence. High up in the wall was a window
some two feet square. But it admitted little or no daylight. It was