DEATH OF MAJOR PROVOT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 46, 18 November 1907, Page 5

DEATH OF MAJOR PROVOT.

A CASABLANCA HERO. Stirring accounts are sent by the. correspondents at Casablanca of the death of Alajor Provot, of the Foreign Legion. A French force.had sallied out to break up the Moorsat dawn. Tho hottest fighting did not come until much later, when 600' mounted Moors hurled themselves upon a body of-tho Foreign Legion, braving artillery and, volley I firing, . and dashing recklessly towards the Legionaries' bayonets. ■ "■ • v ... Major .'Provot, ' the .bluff, leader of. the Legionaries, carried away by the sight of the Moors' desperate valour, could not refrain, says the '.'Matin's", special correspondent, from clapping his hands and crying "Bravo!'' when the Moors were . only, a few yards distant. _ ■ "....' Turning'.to his Legionaries, he shouted: "Courago, mos enfants. En avant! En avant!" ■ As he spoke a bullet struck him in the chest, penetrating the region of the. heart, ti that he fell unconscious at the head of his en and died within an hour. The Legionaries fought stubbornly hand to band with the Moors for the prostrate commandant's body. Having recovered it, after a desperate struggle, they retired in good order. The whole fight lasted five hours, and immense loss is said to have been inflicted on the Moors. ■ • ■ Another account says.:—Commander Provot, who was killed in this action, bad on August. 28 made a mistake in tactics for which ho had been blamed' by General Drudo. Perhaps bo had honed to atone for this bv | exposing himself. To-day he died bravely. '