AN ARAB MARTYR, OR THE HEIGHT OF TORTURE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 243, 13 October 1891, Page 4

AN ARAB MARTYR, OR THE HEIGHT OF TORTURE.

ipF§ j^VliVyßWragb, a little Arab baby iNiraS talari: prisoner by spme,Spanißh sot i&erß, f aadbrbugMto Qran to x be offered &i P for sale as a Blare. The good VicarpGeneral, Juan Cai-n, bought him, and him to his own house to educate him, P»nd baptised him. under the name of fcjKeronimp.. "V^hen the child was eight old, a few Arab slaves made their from Oran, and believing they rHlwere doing the boy a Mndness, they took rLhim with them ; so for some years he • 4 lived with his people as a Mahommedan. f f But the holy'faibh which Juan Oaro had in Hihe child's heart, had taken - such firm roob that his relations qouldnpt v tear it out. H© remained with them till : he was twenty^ve, and then he took a whioh ne knew no Arab could ior- - give, and which, if he Bhould be reoap. ■ toed, would lead him with certainty to Buffering or death. He fled from his home and returned to the Yioar-General, and telling him of the dangers of his flight, he said , Bimply : "It is because I wish to live henceforth in the faith of the divine Saviour." i.u aa ro. o Juan Oaro was bo delighted, that he received the young Arab like a lost child, ■ and Geronimo, onhis side, could not show his benefaotor love and gratitude enough. He soon entered the Spaniard Gnard as a paid soldier, and he performed such brave deeds that he obtained very high military honours. But the height of his joy and ambition was gained when he heard that the Vicar-General gave his consent and approval to a marriage between him and a "young Arab girl (also a convert) with whom he had fallen in love. For ten years nothing but happiness shone on his life,— he won the respect and confidence *s. of all around him, he was Juan Oaro s right hand, and hiß wife was as a daughter to his adopted father, iso shadows seemed to cress their path; no trou&les seemed drawing near them. But one bright May day la 1569, news oame to Oran that a small Arab encampment had been noticed a short distance off. The rumour did not seem of importance ; a handful of Spaniards could easily manage the Arabs ; at least, so Geronimo must have imagined, for ho only took nine soldiers, and manned a little boat, intending to land on the coast, wherethe Arabs had assembled They rowed put of. the safe harbour w th the sun shining upon them, and , sailed alon^theblue aeapast.the coral-fishery o£ Mers-el-Kebir, never dreaming of danger, when Buddenly two Moorish bngantineT, which had been lying secretly in waif; for them, chased them and ran them down. The nine soldiers esoaped, but Geronimo, who was too marked a maii, was Beized upon at onoe, and carnea off to Ealdj Ali, the Calabrian renegard. A great cry epread like wildfire among the Arabs throughout Algeria that the apostate 1 was captured ; that he, the traitor, who had ' abandoned his own people, denied his own faithi was lying, a prisoner, in the fortress, the • t; Bagno." The Moors, who knew his history, made a Bolemn vow that they would restore him to his old religion; so they began'by sending Marabouts to convert mm with arguments and fair promises. But they returned discomforted to Euldj Ah ; their fine woid&hadayailed nothing ; the apostate remained immovable. A fresh treatment was next tried; lie was,ioadedwith:6fiauiß, and treated with the utmost cruelty, and when he was faint from torture- and scarcely > able to jpeak, the Marabouts stood round him, offering him liberty, power, honour, riches. But no offer made him deny his faith, no longing for freedom made him forswear for one single moment his religion; Once, alter some most horrible threat, he raised his poor suffering head, and with a voice so weak it could scarcely be heard, he said : 11 They think they will make me a Moham- ! medan ; but that they shall never do, even it they kill me." For four months Jiuld] Ali gloated over the daily tortures he was inflicting orf Geronimo ; but at last the very sameness of his cruelty palled upon him, %jand he was determined to invent a new and vJjKnpre hideous revenge for the " apoßtate s . One morning the idea came 'to him: he was examining the works of . a fort by the gate of Bab-el-Oued, when he -■-■■ saw a block of beton standing by the great y : stones. This block was a mould in the ■jy.Bb.ape of the immense stones, filled with a Hpdnd of concrete ; when the concrete was <Pprgumoiently hardened, the wall was to be " built with it. Here was the height of torture 1 .Here was the most exquisitely

painful death man might devise ! The dog of a slave should be laid in a similar mould "" the liquid plaster should be poured over him he should- be built alive into the wall ; the renegade should be turned into Tery stone I But aa Arabs never act hastily, the Pasha deliberated moßt carefully whether this really could be the most brutal death he could conceive ; and then, believing 1 there „ was;no more effectual means of barbarity he called to a Navarese mason who was also a Christian Blave, " Michel "he said, " you see this empty mould of heton for the pres-* ent leave it ; 1 have a mind to make heton of that dog of Oran who refuses to come , back to the faith of Islam," Poor M&itre Michel had to obey, but he finished his day's work with a sad heart. As soon as he en~ tered the " Bagno " (.for he was also a prisoner), he found out Geronimo and told him Enid] Ait's command. Geronimo heard the ' ' command in perfect silence and then very calmly he answered :— " God's holy will be dont. Let not those miserable men think they will frighten me out of the faith of Christ by the idea of this cruel death. May the -blessed Saviour only pardon me my ems and preserve me my soul. The whole of that night this brave young Arab spent in prayer and preparation for the death tortures which jhe knew were awaiting him. Must not tne memories of his high military honour and fame, the kindness 'of Juan Caro, the love of his fair young wife, have flashed through his overstrung mind like some , beautif al glittering dream ? Was nothing left? Nothing real? Nothing but deathdeath' so ghaßtly in its fearful savagery that the very life beyond seemed hidden away ? Ah 1 it was not too late even now. The sentence could still be recalled, and greater earthly power than Geronimo had ever had was yet witbin his reach 1 Every line in the- "martyr's face, as we stood before his plaster-cast, told us what his ory mußt have ; been then ; told us silently how his cry for strength was answered. Between 2 and 3 o'clock the next morning, a guard sum- . monedhimto the Pasha's presence. There he stood, a suffering, patient prisoner in chains, before a great multitude of Turks and Arabs in all their gorgeous magnificence. Then he was dragged by a hooting crowd, striking him and beating him, to the , Bab-et-Oued, where he again stood before the Pasha in the midst of his pompous retinue. Euldj . Ali then addressed him slowly and ; clearly ; he pointed Out every detail of the fearful death ; he showed him the block of ietm, and every torture of such . a death was carefully explained. He then •.: ended his speech with : " Dog I you refuse to return to the ■ faith of Islam I "— 'Vl am • a _ Christian, and as a Christian I will die," was, the noble Arab's answer.— "As you will," replied the Paßha. "Then here." pointing to the beton, " shall you be buried alive." "Do your will. Death shall not make me abandon my faith," were Geronimo's laßt words. The Pasha raised his hand, ' some some soldiers stepped forward, they removed the chain from the piisoner's leg, . they bound his hands behind bis baok, (hey crossed his legs and tied them ; then they took him op and laid him face downwards into the mould. The plaster was poured over him, and Tamango, a renegade Spaniard, "'■, wanting to show what a fervent Mahommedan he was, jumped on Gerenimo's body and broke his ribs. This act pleased Euldj Ali so much, that othera followed his example. For twenty-four hours Gerenimo lay bleeding, suffering, dying in that block of beton ; the jeers and oaths of his enemies must have been tinging in his ears, the African sun in ii s in .- tense power must have ponred upon his aching . head ; but brave, faithful, and unmurmuring this nbbla Arab lay there till the weary day \ and night were over, and another morning : broke upon that beautiful Algerian land. ■ But "in the land above, we believe the. gates of

*;-;-" the kingdom of heaven were thrown open, and ■' Geronimo, bearing the palm in his hand, *Z -:■>* was admitted into the noble army of j'S^: For three hundred years this story was H handedrfrom one generation, to another, till H^i Borne people treated it as a romance ; bat <-; tn&,tj?eight years ago when alterations were beuigrmade, and the wall had to-be taken t. down, the workmen oame upon a strange J Hollow place and some human bones. The ag; .'Governor remembering the story, directed *«4 pl«^fe®c-of -Paris to be.thrown into. the mould '§^C\jsiad^Kxy soon the life-size figure of Geronli:^/,:iiino.appeared, proclaiming at once the marp^Cliyrcibm. The cast is now kept in the muse- ' Algiers }it shows a slight figure, a &||i-:^fage^with the'yeins all raised, a poor mouth i#- closed with a patient determined expression fertfie hands are tied the legs are swollen, even g^Stne yeif brbkeri ribs are. lying there. Three ; Jmndted years of history holding 7 its peace ; toM'Mi£l6j'i the i very stones, as it were, v ery out, noble jlrab's martyrdom is brought