General Macdonald.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XL, Issue 7533, 6 May 1903, Page 5

General Macdonald.

From the papers received by yesterday's English mail, we take the following particulars of General Macdonald's death :—

On the morning of March 25th, he went down from his bedroom in the Hotel Rogina, in the Rue de liivoli, and making'his way through the lounge on the ground lloor, entered the reading-room. Until that morning no one in the hotel had the least idea that the militarylooking man with the severe pale face, who had registered himself as Hector Macdonald, of London, was the famous general of that name. The morning papers, however, had more or less sensational accounts of the accusations that have been made against him, and one of them published his portrait in military uniform. Thero was no mistaking the man, and as he passed into the reading-room of the hotel he was curiously regarded by the clerks of the bureau. This he seemed not to notice, but sat down, and took up the morning's papers. The reading room is a prolongation of the lounge, and is easily seen from tho bureau. Suddenly he was seen to start, and the paper he was reading fell from his hand. For a moment he remained as if turned to stone, and then, bending forward picked up the paper from the floor' He appeared to read tho story through with great deliberation." Then he turned to other papers, one after the other. Home of the French journals did not show the reticence of the English papers with regard to the charges that have been made.

For a short time Sir Hector MacRonald remained in deep thought, and then, slowly folding the newspapers, he rose from his seat and paced slowly up and clown the room, his left hand the while stroking his moustache. Then he seemed to have an inspiration He stopped short, lit a cigar, and the highly nervous expression which hts lace wore disappeared. The curiosity of the clerks had subsided during the coming and going of numerous guests, and it was not noticed until half-past twelve in the afternoon that the General had left the room. H 0 had quietly passed upstairs to his own room on the first floor overlooking the Rue de Rivoh and the Tuilcries Gardens. The room was only small, but when taking it General MacDonakl said it would .suit him very well, as he was not one who wanted a great deal.

What happened there nobody knows beyond the fact that he shot himself. No sound of the tragedy was heard in the great hotel ; no revolver shot is said to have been noticed by anyone in the house. At half-past one a chambermaid knocked at the General's bedroom door, and let herself in with her key to make the bed.

Immediately she rushed out screaming, and brought a valet to the scene. On the floor of the room, face downwards, lay the body of the general.

He was dressed only in his shirt and trousers, his arms were outstretched, and an inch from his right hand lay tho service revolver of the British Army. Blood was oozing from a wound in his right temple just above the eyelid, and a stream of blood stained the beeswaxed floor.

The manager of the, hotel was summoned, a police magistrate shortly afterwards arrived, aud a report of the affair was sent to the British Embassy. A careful search was made by tiie magistrate, but no letter explaining why the General had decided to tako his life could be found.

The body was placed on trestles in the middle of the room, and the door was locked. The Embassy made arrangements for the removal ot the reamins when the guests in the hotel had retired for the night. A gentleman who saw the General, every day, after his arrival in lans states that he signed his name on the police form as it was entered at the hotel. He was constantly about the lounge of the hotel, but excited no spec * a l attention. The previous evening he went out after dinner, and returned, so far as is known, somewhere about midnight.