"Do you know the men?"
"Their faces but not their names."
"Of what rank was the officer in charge?"
We did not know, but thought him a company officer of the rank of captain perhaps. He asked for other particulars which we gave to the best of our knowledge.
"I'll attend to that," he said. However, we heard no more of it. We refrained from complaining about the actual ill-treatment and indignities we had been subjected to, the murder of our unoffending comrades, or the lack of attention to our wounds, as we rightly judged that we should only have earned the enmity of our guards.
"May I have your cap badge?" the Prince asked, decently enough.
I lied brazenly: "Sorry, sir; I've lost mine."
The fact was I had shoved it down under my puttees while lying back of the trench the previous afternoon.
Scarfe said: "You can have mine, sir."
He took it. "Thanks so much." He glanced at the aide again; rather sharply this time, I thought. The latter blushed and hastily extracted a wallet, from which he handed Scarfe a two-mark piece, equal to one and ten pence, or forty-four cents. He gave us his name before leaving, and my recollection is that it was something like Eitelbert. Evidently he was a brother of the Duchess of Connaught, whom we knew to have been a German princess whose brothers and other male relatives all enjoyed high commands among our foes.