EXECUTION OF A PRUSSIAN SPY.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 261, 10 November 1870, Page 2

EXECUTION OF A PRUSSIAN SPY.

~l^, ori. Amongst the minor tragpdies enacted in the present war was the execution pf a Prussian spy in Paris. Lieutenant Hatf % a Prussian infantry officer, was shot in thv^, .'eatsaaarAnf the Ecole Militaire. Tlie Paris RbrrespondaJt of the Daily News says that General Troehu thought of pubicly announcing the hour fixed for the execution, but, on consideration, it w deemed better not to attract a crowd to tl' spectacle. At five o'clock in the mornhfc Lieuteuant Harth was informed by M. Euth a Protestant clergyman of Lille, that hii last hour had come. A few minutes after, wards the prisoner was placed in a cellular carriage, and guarded by twelve gendarmes was taken to the Ecole Hilitaire. A consider' able body of troops of all arms—gendarmes" lancers, guides, and cuirassiers—was drawn up on the perade ground. The colonel-com-mandant and a major, and captain of the staff present, When Harth got out of the cellular carriage he noticed the troops, and bowed to them several times. A delay of a quarter of an hour occurred, as the prisoner arrived on' the ground at 5.45, and the execution was ordered at six percisely. He was placed with his back to a wall in a sort of a rectsa in the barrack yard used for' shoeing horses. The fi-ing party consisted of two sergeants, two corporals, and six soldiers of- the 42nd Bern, ment. Two non-commissioned officers with loaded rifles were stationed behind thepeloton as a i*eserve in case of need. Harth begged at first that his hands might not be tied, and that his eyes might not be bandaged; but he ultimately consented. He also asked that as a soldier, he might be allowed to give the woi'd of command to fire. The registrar of the court-martial read the sentence of death, and during a momentary pause, the prisoner in a firm voice cried, " Present! fire!" But this was not the signal which the firing party had been told to wait for. The last syllable of the judgment had'scarcely been read when the officer commanding the peloton drew his sword. Then the soldiers put their rifles to their shoulders (jove is the French word for present), and took deliberate aim. The officer lowered his sword, and in an instant ffarth fell, several bullets striking him almost in-tho same place, and making an enormous hole in the region of the heart. Nevertheless, although the prisoner was quite dead, one of the sergeants in waiting came up to +,he corpse and lodged a bullet in his head. The body, with the clothes on just as the man fell, was placed in a coffin and takea to the Mont Parnasse cemetery for interment.