An eloquent and stirring address in French was given by the Prefect, the sincerity of whose words, if not their meaning, went home to the men, who cheered him to the echo. Mr. Cuenod, H.M.'s Consul, in a few and simple words, made it clear to all that, in a country where every able-bodied man had the privilege of bearing arms, the inhabitants would know how to express, and to make felt, that sympathy which every brave man should feel for another. During the journey officers and men had asked me repeatedly whether there was any truth in a report which had reached them, that as soon as they were restored to health, they would be returned to Germany as prisoners of war. When replying to the speech of the Prefect, I made it quite clear to our men that they had seen the last of Germany. The next move, when the time came, would be homewards, and all they had to do or think about meanwhile was of getting well again, towards which end they would be assisted by the advice and treatment of a skilled Swiss Medical Staff. The painful attention with which all concerned listened to my words, and the immense relief to which they gave rise, brought home to me the heaviness which had been weighing on their spirits owing to the uncertainty of their future. How the malicious rumour arose no one at the time appeared to know, but it came out later that, in some of the camps in Germany, the men had been informed by their guards that they would return again to captivity as soon as they were fit. Some of the men had argued that as Switzerland could only take a limited number of prisoners of war, their places would be required by their other sick comrades in Germany as soon as they themselves were well enough to return. This they thought only fair, but the fact, nevertheless, weighed heavily upon them. Immediately after breakfast, the men for Leysin, all of whom were supposed to be tuberculous, and amongst whom were some serious cases, were despatched to that destination in charge of Swiss doctors; the rest, for Château d'Oex, were divided into groups, and sent up in a succession of trains by the mountain railway.