THE EXECUTION OF FORTY FELONS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 473, 21 May 1890, Page 3

THE EXECUTION OF FORTY FELONS.

HHJS part played by H.M.S. Condor at the bombardment of Alexandria was by far the pluckießtduripg that memorable naval operation. Tho characteristic bravery and sany froid of her popular commander, Lord Charles Beresford, the cheery gallantry of the typical British tars abroad, and the astounding impudence of the tiny craft as she daringly steamed up to the big frowning forts and gave them battle singlehanded, must have caused the pulses of all true Englishmen to beat high with pride and grim satisfaction. . I wonder if any of the gallant sailors abroad were aware of the terrible tragedy which took place in those very waters a few van re ago? Probably not. During my residence in Alexandria I had peculiar opportunities for obtaining a veracoust account of the ghastly episode— in face 1 gleaned ifc from on© of the chief actors himself, and it is nearly as follows : When Ali Mustapha was captain of the Alexandria Military Police (a most responsible and powerful office in those days), he was tho especial terror of tho horde of (jreek assassins and Levantine scum with Which Alexandria was infested twenty years ago. His hatred of Greeks and Levantines had something of a diabolical intensity about it, for he would order the execution of a Greek for a peccadillo, which ho would readily condone by the payment of a ten-franc fine if it were committed by a European of any other nationality, or in the case of a fellah, by the administration of a couple of dozen bastinado cuts, provided, of course, there was no backsheesh available, Th© notorious * Cutthroat Lano, at the bottom of the Grand Square, so well-known to ail Anglo-Egyptians, was then in full tide of its infamy, so many as seven murders having been committed in it in a single night, and hardly a day passed by without at least a couple of murders having taken place in its infamous labyrinths. Money was the chief cause of this wholesale murder. It was positively dangerous to display the smallest amounts publicly, as the most paltry sums sufficed to excite the cupidity of tho cowardly vagabonds who were for ever prowling about, and who would assuredly follow and stab you if opportunity offered. One case I was personally aware of —that of a Maltese tailor, pameci Luigi Sciberras. On this victim horrible wounds were inflicted (resulting in his death) because he displayed a two-franc piece to a couple of Greeks, ard refused to treat them with wine. The two skulking curs dogged the poor fellow s footsteps on his way home, and whilst he.was passing a lonely spot near Pompey’s Pillar, they fell upon him, stabbed him, robbed him of his two francs, and then inflicted on him fearful injuries, which caused his death. This case is on recerd in the English consulate. In addition bo the murders which took place with such terrible frequency, burglary was rampant everywhere, and safety 'to life and property altogether in a most (deplorable condition. _ Captain Ali Mustapha was indefatigable in his efforts to stamp out these assassins and desperadoes, and consequently his life had been attempted several times by the low-class Greek element; but the wily old Turk was quite a match for them. He know perfectly well with whom he had to deal, so he invariably walked, abroad, both in daylight and during his nightly rounds of inspection, with a suit of cbain-mail underneath his clothing. ‘ Oftentimes I have laughed at his bulgy, burly old form as he walked past our little tables at the Cafe Trieste—most enjoyable of cafes-now, alas! no more. He was a jocund-looking old fellow of about twenty stono, and looked more like a fat, comfortable London alderman masquerading in Turkish dress than one of the most cruel and unscrupulous of tho khedive officers. . Things had at last arrived at a climax of rascality, Ali found himself one day with no less than forty criminals— chiefly Greeks —on hand, sentenced to death by the (Alexandria Tribunal, and he had received notice that there were fifteen more on their way np from Zagazig to receive their unfhappy despatch. • Ali was in a perfect quandary, not knowing what to do with them, as the prison 'accommodation in those elementary days of ' civilisation was very limited, and he would be utterly unable to accommodate the lot j ' when they arrived. So he set his wits to work, and aided by a Frenchman named 'Leon Husson, he bethought himself of a 'scheme which for simplicity and effective<nesß it would be difficult to beat. He decided bo execute the lot at once by drowning them ! The law of the land of Egypt was, in ‘ those days, of a very convenient and elastic - nature, and was dispensed strictly in accordance with the pockets of tho persons affected by it, and it eo happened that these forty felons had no money, neither had they any • friends who would interfere with almighty ' backsheesh to save them ; so their doom ' was sealed. Nobody was likely to question ? Ali’a modus operandi, even if the affair got wind ; and nobody was likely to trouble to ' think twice about such a trumpery baga- • telle as the shuffling off of a couple of score ’ of Levantine criminals. ' Attached to tho Marina Zaptieh was a ! sorb of carpenter and handy man named * Leon Husson, a Frenchman, for whom Ali had conceived a great liking, and he ib was ' who perfected the precious scheme which was to ease the Alexandria prison by a wholesale weeding out. Between them - they had arranged the following plot On the morrow, by order of Captain Ali ‘ Mustapha, Chief of Police of Alexandria, the forty condemned prisoners were to be marched undor military escort to the Marina, ' and there embarked on board a large barge on pretence of being taken down the harbour ! to the Mex forts to perform convict labour. After being placed on board they would be ' chained one to the other, and there left to wait till Captain Ali arrived to examine / them. After having visited them, Captain Ali would order a Government tug to tow - them to within a hundred yards of Mex fort, • and then a few sailors from the tug were to • board them, let go the anchor, and after * seeing all quiet, and that they had plenty of ‘ bread and water for the night, return to the ‘ tug, come on up to Alexandria, and report 6 themselves at the Zaptieh, which was ’ Captain Ali’s head-quarters. ■ Now, unknown to most people, this ' barge contained several huge blocks of - concrete at the bottom, and these the • adroit Leon bad neatly boarded over with a thin planking, and so made a false bottom for reasons which will' beapparent very ' shortly; When all these instructions had * been properly carried out, 4 Captain Ali and Husson, in the dead of the night, were to • take $ • boat from the P. arid O. wbarf, xiiuffje the oars, and row noiselessly along- ' side the barge. Husson was then to drill a s few holes quietly with an oiled centre-bit. ' under the stern, arid then both Were, to pull "’away; arid 4 leave the chained'crimirialsto- ' settle down to their doom. • - | r ; T had better relate the actual perforrioanco' lV pf thiS fiendiah conception iri.Leori Husson’s owri ‘Words. - When he told me liis - account j of the affair he was in very needy circura-:•]

stances, having lost his patron, Captain Ali, and having been discharged from several good situations because of his excessive love of absinthe. It was over a bottle of that execrable and deadly liquor that he waxed communicative one night, and favoured me as follows * Ah, m’sieu, it is true ; Great Heaven ! I shall never forget.that awful night! Although I did nob hear a single groan, nor see a single face, something I saw after the barge bad sunk will haunt me to ray dying day. I will tell you. ‘Capitaine Ali was a brave man, and one who would not stick at trifles, but his heart failed him just at tho pinch. He had not a cceur de leon,' added Husson, smiling faintty at his own feeble pun, ‘and I had all the work of drilling the holes to do myself. When we left the wharf Capitaine Ali produced a bottle of absinthe and some water, and bade me take a good glass to keep up my courage. After rowing for nearly an hour we came near where the barge was anchored, aud pulled cautiously round and round her, narrowing the circle e*ery time, until we were close alongside, when we found that all the wretched canaille were aeleep, for we could not hear a sound. ‘ “ Be quick," said Capitaine Ali, as he handed me another grand verve of absinthe, “ be quick, there is luckily no moon, and they all slumber!’ ’ • I bored away in silence for some minutes, when ail at once I heard the clank, clank, clank, of a leg-chain as ib struck against some woodwork, and I was so nervous 1 nearly let my tools fall into the S 6«.

‘ “ It’s nothing,” said tho Capitaine; “it is only one of them turning in his sleep. Besides, they can’t hurt you ; they are all chained together." ‘ Scar-r-r-r-r-r-e ! Mon </c Pipe , m’sieu ! Can’t hurt you, indeed ! Did you ever hoar such a cold-blooded monster? Why, the very sight of one of those helpless wretches’ faces peering over the side would have unnerved me quite, and I should nob have been able to finish the job. In about half an hour’s time I had drilled about half-a-dozen rather large holes underneath the water-line, at a place I had previously marked and prepared, and then Ali said : * “ There, my good brave Leon,-1 think that willdo. Let us now pull off for a short distance watch the effect ” *We pulled a few boats’-lengths, and seen Capitaine Ali rolled up and puffed away at a cigarette, while I eat still and watched the barge with a sort of entranced and hideous fascination. Do what I would, 1 could nob keep my eyes off it. Thoy would not remain shut; thoy refused be look elsewhere, but they kept fixed rigidly on the black hull with a stony spellbound glare I was powerless to real;... ‘ By-and-by we saw her slowly and gradually settling down, stem first, and Capitaine Ali rubbed his hands with devil’s glee as he saw our plan was going tosucceed. All at once, without the slightest warning of any kind, the great black death-trap gave a sort of convulsive shudder, and then shot down to the bottom like a stone; neither a groan, nor a cry, nor a shriek was heard and in a few seconds there was nothing to mark the place where the poor wretches had been hurried off before the great Judge with such awful suddenness. ‘ Nothing, did I say, m'aieu ? Nothing ? By the great Heaven ! lam wrong. I will tell you, m’sieu,’ and here Leon dropped into a hoarse whispering of fearful intensity.

‘1 saw on the top of that inky water hundreds of white glittering bubbles come up to the surface and burst, and I fancy I can hear now the death-gurgles in the throats underneath the water I That mute evidence has been far more terrible to me than hundreds of piercing shrieks and prayers for mercy. I have tried to forget, but I cannot, and whenever I have been carousing too much with my bon ami here,’ and poor Leon smiled in a melancholy manner as he pointed to the fatal absinthe bottle, ‘ldo not afterwards see, as other men do, horrible visions of hideous snakes crawling all over me, or blue and green little imps twisting about in tho air, or queer old heads peering and grinning at every corner, or slimy and loathsome reptiles noiselessly swallowing one another in mid-air; but directly I close my eyes, I see nothing but a great sheet of black water, and every now and again a horrid white bubble willcomeup, and burst, and go away; and then another will come, and another, and another. Milles diables. There is no ending to them—they will keep on for ever ! And I rise, and drink again, and laugh, and sing aloud—for 1 dare nob sleep.’