PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 221, 27 October 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES.

STORIES OF COURAGE AND SELF-SACRIFICE Just as there is, on the one hand, no other instinct quite so deeply rooted in tho mind of man as tTiat of the desi-e for and enjoyment of treedom, so, too, the loss of freedom is a thing universally dreaded and intensely irksome u> endure. And this is just a,s true of personal as of national liberty. In spito of the cavalier lyrist's vavant assertion that "Stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage," it is fairly certain that no prisoner ever was without his dark and agonised moments. when the loss of liberty seemed a thing too grievous to be borne. The petition in the Litany on behalf ot "all prisoners and captives" may have been comparatively disregarded until recent years brought home its poignancy, when so many unoffending and heirless civilians, so many bravo and often wounded combatants, have been languishing through weeks, months, and oven years in foreign captivity. It is with cases more or loss the parallels of those just alluded to that tho present article purposes to deal; with prisoners of war or prisoners ■

State 'n various periods of' history, the conditions of their captivity, jiiid the ways in which they relieved its tedium. As a general rule it will be 'ound that the courtesies of war liave been extended to an honorable captive in civilscd warfare, and probably the hardships experienced by some of our scldiers and merchant seamen in German prison camps could not lie equalled in the records of recent history.

ROYAL PRISO.VEI>\ In tlie wars of the Middle Ages, when battles wore so much more made up of hand-to-hand fighting, and whan the leaders wore expected to be conspicuous figures in the forefront of every combat, it was by no means unusual for kings, primes, and generals to be taken captite. such an occurrence being, of course, one of great military importance by reason of its depressing and demoralising effect upon thb troops thus deprived of tFieir leader. Probably few historical episodes are more attractive to the youthful imagination than that of the discovery of Coeur-de-Lion in his captivity by the faithf il minstrel Blondel—a story which, ut course, some of our ury-a-dust historians would fain have us disbelieve —and that of the Black Prince and his followers waiting at table upon the Frenc'i King and his son, after he had made them his prisoners at Cressy It was not always, howeve,-, that such courtly and. kindly treatment was meted out to royal captives; and, curiously enough, the'greatest nndictiveness usually seemed to be displayed n the case of rival pr:nces of kindred blood. The castles of Pontefract and Tewkesbury, the scenes respectively of the captivity and death of King Richard 11. and King Edward 11., are notable examples of this, while from the tragic history of the Tower of London could be drawn many another grim nn.l pitiful example, as also from the various prisons of Alary Queen of Scots, and the* last one, the scene of her execution. Kotheiingny. it is a strange fact, and one which proves the universal dread of and hatred for the idea of imprisonment, that there is always powerful a fascination in a dungeon or cell where some notable personage lias been incarcerated, l'lie 'don-ol the dir.U and solitary years, the silence, the confinement, the lack of companionship, of exercise, above all. of liberty, seems to he almost a reality within the stone walls which have known these things in their full mean.ng, and it is with i sigh ami gasp ot re'ief tlvit one steps out into the clear light of day again. A place which has ueen a prison seems e prison always . A melancholy association always clings about it, just as the ruins ot Carisbrooke Castle seem perpetually haunted by the gracious, mournful presence of the "lair and fatal km-."

NOISOME DUNGEONS. It is hardly to "oe wondered at that. some of tilts mediaeval strongholdshould have seemed to be a.s much prisons as fortresses. The noisome dens to which captives were consigned still oxi-t in sonic cases, to awaken a transient wonder and horror in the tourist'* mind, and it is not only the fame < Byrons' poem which causes the grim castle of Chillon to be regarded by the majority of people as the scene of tlie sufferings of the hapless Ronnivaru. Nor was it surprising that the darkling pile of the Bastille, with its i.ssoeiations of mysterious disappearance, of "lettres tie eacliet" eonsfgning their victims to life-long imprisonment, of a thousand injustices and wrongs, should have seemed to embody the converse of freedom to the revolutionaries of Paris. The story ot the Man with the Iron Mask, surely one of the most tragical tabs over which historical mystery-solvers have wrangled, must Dave been only one among many which those grim walls could have revoaled, and \>r. Manette in Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities," had more than one counterpart in actual fact.

MILITARY PRISON'S. During the long per od when I'Yan.-e and Britain were more or less continually at war, the military prisons of both countries were crowded with soldiers taken in battle. Jlie old prison at Portland, as also at Princetown. was thus occupied during the iatier part of the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries; while Southampton and Portsmouth also had a good number of these unlucky exiles. As a general thing, they seem to have been treated lair'v well, and to have l>eeii able t< get most things they wanted vxcept--(and it is a very large "except!") their freedom. They used to make carvings and curiosities, and sell them to people who cam 3 to see the prisoners, with the money buying little comforts and luxuries to alleviate the prison l.i. -»\ fine example of the skill shown by some of these prisoners is to be seen to this day in the museum at Southport, in the form of a beautiful model of the celebrated "Temeraire." Tins model is some four or five feet long, arid looKs at first signt like a pieie of elaborate ivory carving. It is in reality completely curried out ■n the beef and mutton bones from the prisoners' dinner. Every part is complete to the smallest detail, and th • whole tiling must represent many hours, weeks, and even months of skilful and painstaking labour. Bntisli captives mi I'rcnrh war prisons seem In have led a similar lile to that of the r'rench prsoners of war m this country, and a recent writer ha- described their experiences in an interesting volume on the suhjiV f .

Ou the outbreak of hostilities wit'i .Vapole'.n at the close of tile peace wh ! • i followed tin Treaty oi Amiens a great number (f Urrtisli io hi mi ' were made prisoners, and in some cases run- li hardship and di-tress were caused. Some were placed n fortresses nllrrs merely, as we should now term it, ." iiitei tied," and there were many instaliies of peopl .< tvfi i were cii'j oil' from their homes, relatives, and own livel'hood. for twelve year*. .\'apolcoti was astonishingly hard towards

his rmgiish prisoners, and oven when KfJOO soldier-captives were handed ove. to France, he declined to release all those unfortunate "detenus.''

WONDER ¥ UL ESCAPES. Narratives of daring escapes, or attempts to escape irom prison are suliierentiy numerous to till a volume. The adventures and disappointments of the celebrated Baron irenck are probably his chef claim to celebrity. This enterprising Prussian (whoso methods, by tho way, appear to have found some disciples among tne Donington Hall "prisoners'") escaped irom the Castle of Glatz, where he had been imprisoned by Frederick 11., after n«. fewer than six abortive attempts, in the course ot which he had tunnelled, climbed, swam, jumped, filed h's chains, and knocked his jailer over the head. Wnn remarkable stupid'ty. however, T'tnck returned to the scene of his imprisonment some twelve years later, and was again clapped into durance vile, this time in the fortress of Magdeburg. Here he lay for five years in close captivity, and during the whole nine fie never ceased his indefatigable attempts to break prison, though some cruel blow of il!luek invariably rendered all hi-s efforts futile, and resulted in an increased rig our in his bondage. He ultimately left his prison through being pardoned bv Frederick himself, and there are people ivlio consider the Karon as not the most ununpeccable of, historians.

CATCHING A TARTAR. During the period when the Turk's.i {.alloys infested the Mediterranean and tiio Bay of Biscay, taking captive any merchant vessels with their news whic'i fol linto the-'r hands, a great many English seamen \Yt}rc prisoners at Alexandria, whence they were drafted from tune to tiiro to row the Turkish galleys. Sometimes, however, the Turks "caught a Tartar," as when, in 1563, tbev captured tho "Three Ha'f Moons," of Portsmouth, and her crew, including the gunner, John Foxe. or John Reynard, as the M.S. in the Harleian collection names him. This gallant fellow, "having been thirteen or fourteen years under the bondage of the Turks, and being weary thereof, pondered continually, diy and night, how he might escape." He at last devised ana carried out. with the aid of seven other prisoners, a plan by which tl.ey overpowered the keepers and jailers, seized a galley which was lying in the roads, and took to th« s.:a. Bv this means i.i the prisoners—two hundred and sixtysix in number —wore released, and after a stormy and perilous voyage during which a few died through lack of provisions, they reached Europe in safety. It is pleasing to learn that, on his arrival in England, "The Counc'l considering that he had spent a great part of his youth in thraldom, extended to him their liberality, to help to maintain him in aee."

Captivity lias not seldom been mane glorious by deeds of courage and selfsacrifice, but never perhaps by no more noble than tli.it recorded of Lucas nl Seringa pa tarn when a prisoner in the bands of Tippoo Snhib. Captain Baird afterwards General Sir David Baird

-—was among die prisoners, and, being seriously wounded, the additional burden of chains would in all likclihoo I have ended Irs life. Lucas volunteered to bear his chains as well ai his own. in order that the jailers might tell then cruel master that the full tale of tetters was filled. It was not until four years had passed that tfio survivors were released; and time was to bring lound live day when Baird, at the head of a victorious army, had Tippoo's soils at lis mercy, and snared them because the memory of Lucas's sacrifice seemed to him too noble a thing to be sullieu hv revenge.