SURVIVED HIS OWN EXECUTION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2480, 10 May 1909, Page 3

SURVIVED HIS OWN EXECUTION.

A man who has attended his own execution and still survives to relate the details is surely worthy of a short paragraph The man in question, although at presc.u serving in the humble capacity of waiter in one of the Paris cafes, was, twenty-one years ago, one of the historic characters of the world.

His name is Colonel Marteras, and in 1869, was on the point of being proclaimed President of Uruguay, when he was arrested, ■sharged with treason, and sentenced to be sr.ot.

On Monday, June 30th of that year, he was taken by a platoon of soldiers out of the capital to a cluarcd spot in the heart of a forest and bound to alchair. At the word "Fire!” a nervous shockcaused Marteras to fall to the ground. He did not hear the volley, but a labourer working near by did. The workman went to ascertain the cause: saw the soldiers marching away, and Marteras badly wounded, but not dead by any means, lying on the ground. The labourer took the would-be President home and cured his wounds, and he and Marteras both now often tell of the supposed execution of the " French Pretender."