OUT ON PAROLE

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 34, 4 November 1919, Page 7

OUT ON PAROLE

STORY OF A. FRENCH EX-SOLDIER Raotil Doridut, a soldier of (he Great War, was a hero of a strange adventure. Made prisoner early in tho war and sent to Germany, he learned during the vintei of 1915 that his mother was dangerously ill. He sent a letter to tho then Emperor William asking to bo permitted to proceed to her deathbed. Well disposed that day, perhaps, Iho Emperor granted the reediest, but with the proviso that Doridut give his word of honour to return to the camp, once the object of his journey was accomplished. Arriving at Besancon ho was held by the French authorities, who wero suspicious because of tha unprecedented occurrence of a private being released on parolo by tho Germans. While" ho was detained at Besancon his mother died. The voyago to Moulins being now without object, truo to his word.'Doridot returned to Germany and presented himself at the camp. "I never expected to see vou again," said the commandant in a humorous vein. "The word of a French soldier is worth more than a scrap of paper," responded Doridot. Since his return to France after the armistice he had been brooding over the d?«th of his mother and a few weeks ago shot himself through tho heart.