THE GUILLOTINE. DETAILS OF THE EXECUTION OF PRADO AT PARIS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 345, 23 February 1889, Page 3

THE GUILLOTINE. DETAILS OF THE EXECUTION OF PRADO AT PARIS.

The execution of Prado in Paris on December 28fch created intense excitement in Paris. An immense crowd collected outside the prison the previous night and rei mained until Prado had been executed. The rabble spent the time in singing comic songs and amusing themselves in other boisterous ways. Prado slept well until 6 o'clock. He protested his innocence of the murder of Marie Aguitant to the la?t> and declared against the injustice of the world. He refused to disclose his real name. When the gaolers came to pinion his limbs he offered uo resistance, but while they were engaged in this opera tion he shed one tear. The sight of the guillotine seemed to hypnotise him. When a- priest offered him a crucifix he said : " Non Dieu se moque de moi." His death was witnessed by 200 artists, newspaper men, actors, lawyers, and politicians who possessed influence sufficient to obtain admission within the sent* y Knea fn th<* Place delaßoquettee. In fifty seconds from his appearance at the pii^on gate his bleeding head lay in the ba.sket. In front of the gates ot the pi ison wheio the execution took place, \\a» found a group of men, among whom weie seen several of the most distinguished men in France. Near the line ol trees on the upper side of the path stood Mount Sully of the Comedie TTrancaie-e ; neat him Ai mand Sylvestre and Henii Kochefoit. Alphonse Daudet was also said to ha\e been present. Prado in walking from the prison to the guillotine showed no signs of fe:ir. His arms were tightly pinioned behind I>h back. His heavy locks seen, f o such advantage in the courtroom, weie gone. His apparel seemingly consisted of a heavy woollen underskirtand dark trousti*. His shirt had been roughly cut away from about the neck and should eis. In front the guillotine board stood upright to a height of five feet. As Prado neared the board, a most dreadful series of incidents follow ed each other with the rapidity of lightning. A trembling abbe stepped apart, and four buily men, dressad in blouses of blue and white and otriped stockings, who had not been seen before, sprang forward, s ized the condemned man, and hurled him onwaul agrainst the upright board, flung themselves upon him and by their weight bore the struggling victim, face downward, to the top of the low platform. That board worked on a swivel and ran on rollers. In an instant it had been wheeled forwaid until his neck was under the glistening knife. Deibler, who had stood like a man of stone at the sight of the guillotine during all this terrible scene, now reached forward and fixed the wooden collar over the back of the prisoner's neck. Then the knife wps sprung, and the key of steel struck the neck as it might have collided with a lubber car spring. It went through, and the head of Prado lay among the shavings beyond.