In the end, however, the plan that had actually brought him over the fence was not his own. In the long minutes since he had dropped down into the darkness, they had not appeared.įrom the moment he had been taken as a prisoner of war, Churchill had dreamed of reclaiming his freedom, hatching scheme after scheme, each more elaborate than the last. His hopes for survival depended on two other prisoners, who were still inside the wall. At any moment, he could be discovered and shot by the guards or by the soldiers who patrolled the dark, surrounding streets of Pretoria, the capital of the enemy Boer Republic. Seizing his chance an hour earlier, the 25-year-old had scaled the high, corrugated-iron paling that enclosed the prison yard. CROUCHING IN DARKNESS outside the prison fence in wartime southern Africa, Winston Churchill could still hear the voices of the guards on the other side.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |