DUEL TO DEATH

Hokitika Guardian, 15 July 1933, Page 6

DUEL TO DEATH

ENEMY SAVED AND KILLED

STORY OF THE FOREIGN LEGION

Behind the,, announcement that the French military authorities have commuted a death -sentence passed on a so’dier of the faniou s Foreign Legion lies ia strange damn of love and re-' venge that began .in a London hairdressing isaloon six years ago, and ended in. blood under a broiling Af'ican sun. 'Rescuing his bitfei-est enemy as he j n.y stricken on a battlefield, . the soldier waited patiently until his rival’s wounds were healed, ancl then, pistol in hand, They faced each other in the iln;j-lar'-cl of a duel. The legionary’s bullet found Rs mark, and. mnv "’ith the debt of vengeance fu’ly paid lie is facing wiclt calm .resignation the prospect of n long incarceration on Devil's isle';; -V , .

. Dcjging idea til a t every step, under the pitiless bail of lead from hidden tribesmen, Rene Pascal, corporal of the French Foreign Legion, staggered to a fca.ri.dpit in which another legionary lay badly wounded. The stricken man was suffering agonies of thirst, and hunger under a blazing African sun, and was teriifled at the prospect of falling a victim to the cruel mutilating knives of the furies who haunt the battlefie’ds in, the hope of finding wounded legionaries to torture.;'.

Looking, at the huddled, white-faced figure i n the pit, Pascal started with ngtonisfmtent, Tor the recognised the man he had . braved death to aid as fits bitterest enemy, whom he had vowed to kill -'it sight.

For a moment or two pasra] debated whether he should turn back and have his enemy to his fate, but instinctive chivalry prevailed, and. picking up the man, he retraced his steps over the. perilous ground separating him from a post of legionnaires. SENTENCED TO DEATH. This not a situation from the latom. Hollywood thriller, but a drama of real life culled from the dossier of' Legionary Corporal 'Rene Pascal, which was laid before I 'the supreme military 'authorities', in.: Paris.... Pascal was sentenced -to -death -by court-martial for. the murder of -Albert " -Morant, the legionary whose life lie had saved at the' risk of hi,- own.•"'; One has to go back six years to' find the beginning of the story. Then Pascal,. who was ehiployed nr a French bank in London, met'a beautiful girl employee in a•" rfiairicure _ parlour of a London hairdressing establishment. They became engaged, and - it was un--demtood .that they were to marry as soon, as;- Pascal, wliosc'r'famjly-.-are. well knaw.n w -a,nd .mueli' respected- in P-ar-k bnsines-g circles,/ : -had "-performed. ;.-his.military, service. ' • ».;••

. Very'"Soon-■ after? be •vhad;Join'ed ,’h»s .regiment Pascal noted a change- civ the* tone of tile letters from.his .fiancee, ancL Jane day he learned from a comr-de in the bank that the girl had fallen under the spell of a former colleague, Albert. Morant. Later came the news that the girl had been abandoned by Morant. ■

As .soon as his military service was completed Pascal hurric-cl back to London to seek the girl, but she refused fr> .compromise him in the eyes of his family by joining her life to his ■Some months {later 'the*. «kl• was found 'dead from an overdose of drugs in a Paris flat, and her heart-broken lover resigned his position in the bank and sought forgetfulness in the ranks of Ith© Foreign Legion. lUnknown to Pascal, Morant had gone the .same wav as n se-suel to ftscandal which Involved his-hurried do* mptu-”©• /’fironr ‘London. Until the- day that P.-scal risked hig life in the dosert fiat© ha.d not brought tho two men face to face.

HOW MORANT MET HIS. DEATH

Fo r six months Alorant lay between life land, death in hospital, and one of the callers was Pascal. On the day •that Alorant was discharged fit for duty he was 'met by Pascal, but tho hand 'tli'd former held-otit was brushed aside j “That day I saved your life -because •it- was the only way to play the game,” •declared Pascal. ‘‘T-o-dav T am going 't-o take it.” Alorant looked at the •other a'pd realised that it was useless ;t« argue. . i Accompanied by -comrades as seconds ;and spectators- the two men made their way across the sands to The spot where •Pascal had found his enemy, -and with revolvers nrovided by cavalry comrades thev stood fac'lhg each other. It is alleged.that Pascal did 'not loval’.v 'await the .sign''-] to fire, but anticipated ft by a .fraction of a second, and Alorant foil dead with h : s undischarged 'revolver still in his band. On the return to camp Pascal was : placed ‘.under .arrest, find later the court-martial condemned him to death. Tn View’of, the wrong Pascal had sv.stamed at . tile hands of the other map and his bravery,'he was recommended in mer-y -afc the ha'iids of the military chiefs.' V

The autfcor'it'ier, after considering the circumstances, commuted the sentence to vie of ten years’ imprisonment, which Pascal wii] have to servo in ono of the penal settlements of the Devil’s Isle group, unless in the meantime the petition being prepared on his behalf Results in a- free pardon or further mitigation of his sentence. .