Court Martial of Joseph William Mayersbeth - Page 23

13.  
D 2

The accused takes his stand at the place from which other
witnesses give their evidence.

The accused is duly sworn. The accused gives
his evidence:-

The evidence of
the witnesses
for the de-
fence, includ-
ing that of the
accused, if he
is a witness,
will be taken
here in the
order in
which they
give evidence.
On Saturday night 17th June last after mess I remained in
my billet wrote some letters & had some general conversation
with Mr Dyke. About 8.30pm the ?? entered the
billet & remained until 10pm. At that hour Mr. Elliot &
Mr Anderson entered the billet, & Mr Dyke left the billet.
I was left with Anderson & Elliot in the billet. Almost at
once we went outside, the 3 of us, & stood talking at the door
of the billet for some minutes. Between 10.10 pm & 10.15 pm
Mr Anderson & Elliot left me & went to their quarters.

I returned into the billet, saw that Dyke was not there, &
so I started to go down to my billet. I had not gone far
when I heard men talking & I returned to see who it was.
I noticed 3 or 4 men in the estaminet attached to the house
they appeared to be having some drink. I told them to
go to bed. It was rather dark & they did not seem to recognize
who I was & so I said "it is Lt. Mayersbeth speaking".
They seemed rather confused at this & I mentioned the fact that
people sometimes do call me Maisey for short. But I
did not invite them to call me Maisey. They hardly (??)
pressed me to have a drink with them, and I did. I had
a mouthful of the wine they offered. I then left them,
telling them to be sure to get off to bed. I went into
the house. I was in there - Mr. Dyke's billet - a couple of minutes,
when we heard a noise outside & I said to Mr Dyke "There
are some men out there but I think they are all right &
will go to bed." The noise continued & we went out.

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