The first demonstration of this punishment did not fail to exercise a far-reaching influence upon the other prisoners.  Major Bach was beside himself with delight.  Even he, steeped although he was in brutality, was evidently somewhat surprised by the effectiveness of this penalty, and he laughed loud and long at the shrieks and misery of the unhappy Zouave.  Henceforth committal to the cells was no longer to constitute a punishment at Sennelager.  Tying to the stake was the most complete means of subjugating and cowing the prisoners.

As might be expected, one and all of us dreaded such a sentence, and we were exceedingly diligent and painstaking in our efforts to keep in the good graces of the Commanding Officer.  The dread of being sentenced to a spell at the post, and submission to the untold agony which it precipitated, broke us in to all intents and purposes to a degree which must have exceeded even Major Bach’s most sanguine expectations.  But now we were faced with another and far more formidable danger.  Most of the guards enjoyed as enthusiastically as their lord and master the agony of a luckless wretch who was condemned to this punishment.  To them it afforded amusement of the most exhilarating character.  But the prisoners, now thoroughly intimidated, took every precaution to deny the guards an opportunity for which they were so much on the alert.  Consequently, being deprived of the chance to have any of us strung up on legitimate grounds, they commenced to harass and exasperate us in the hope of provoking some action which would bring us before the Commanding Officer to receive a sentence to the stake.  Then, being completely foiled in this nefarious practice they did not hesitate to have us arraigned upon the most flimsy charges.  As the prisoner was denied all opportunity to rebut any charge preferred against him, and as his word was never accepted before the studiously prepared complaint of the guard, who was always careful to secure corroborative evidence, the chances of escaping the sentence were extremely slender.

The second victim of this brutal treatment was a Russian Pole, and no man ever deserved it less.  The Pole was entering his barrack and the Russian orderly who had just washed and cleaned the floor, upbraided his compatriot for entering the building with muddy boots.  There was a breezy altercation between the two men for a few minutes, but they were separated on perfectly friendly terms by one of the soldiers.  The incident was closed and dismissed from the thoughts of one and all.  At least so thought all those who had witnessed it.

But one of the soldiers who had been a spectator saw the opportunity for which he had long been searching.  He hurried to the non-commissioned officer in charge of the guard to report, exaggeratedly, that two Russian prisoners had been fighting.  The non-commissioned officer, one of the most brutal and despicable Prussians in the camp, seized his rifle and hurried to the Russian barrack.  Here the two suppositious delinquents were pointed out.  He went up to the Pole, and grabbing him by the shoulder, roared: