1939-09-08 — Page 23

THE CHINA MAIL, SEPTEMBER 8, 1939.

TO-DAY'S STRANGE STORY OF REAL PEOPLE

THE REMARKABLE STORY

OF PARADA

J

: By AUGUSTUS ST. JOHN THE VILLAGE PRIEST of Braga, Portugal, had just concluded the Sunday offeratory and the organ was pealing the conclusion of the Mass. A man listlessly half-kneeled and half- sat in a corner of the massive church. The priest, in purple- and gold, then began to offer his benediction and the map in the corner sprang to his feet, drew a long knife from under his smock and rushed toward the altar.

There was a maniacal gleam in his eyes and he was livid with berserk rage. Friends seized him and dragged him down the aisle as he shouted back: "I will kill him yet! He will be dead before sunset!"

Belleving that they had quieted him down, his friends led him out of town. {

(CLL Sixt

"I WILL KIII Him Yet!"

Parada Cried.

After King Peter's death King Louis He was Parada, a shepherd, whom 1. received a visit from the Bishop of they knew to be quarrelsome, especial- | Angra who stated that he had journey- ly when drinking. But he was all blus-ed all the way from his diocese in the ter. He had never done anyone harm. Azores especially to communicate to Nevertheless a crowd gathered about his beloved monarch his sincere belief the rectory that Autumn day, their in Parada's innocence. Louis, greatly morbid curiosity whetted by the impressed by the bishop's earnestness chance that Parada might return and ordered that the records of the Parada attempt to carry out his crazy threat. case be brought from the archives They were about to disperse when and he read the testimony from be- they saw the figure of a man leap from ginning to end. After he had finished a window of what they knew to be the he concluded that the bishop was a priest's bedroom. He dropped into the sentimental crank and. he wiped his garden below. Then when he recover-hands of the whole matter. ed his feet the crowd saw that he was

Parada. Although nearly the whole vil- lage joined in pursuit he escaped to the hills.

A crowd entering the rectory start- ed back in terror when they found their favourite priest lying on the floor of his bedroom, murdered, His throat was cut.

After chasing him through the hills

for several days a posse captured Parada. He surrendered meekly, earn- estly protested his innocence and beg- ged the mob to be lenient with him. He swore by all he held sacred that he was the victim of a horrible and fan- tastic mistake.

At his trial Parada was confronted by his knife — identified as the same that he had brandished in the church -which had been found beside the dead priest. He was shown the key to the rectory door which had been found in his pocket. Still he insisted on maintaining his plea of innocence, despite the angry roars of the specta- tors in court.

Taking the stand he said that he had gone to the rectory with the full intention of killing the priest: that he had locked the outside door and poc- keted the key to prevent his intended victim's escape.

"Fully determined on killing him, I crept to his bedroom," Paradà testi- filed, "expecting to find him in prayer or asleep. But when I looked in I al- most lost my breath. He was on the floor, His lips were trying to move, as if he was gasping. I was frightened. I felt pity for him. I could have killed the one who had killed him, but I be- lleved he had committed. suicide. I suddenly realised that I had accus- ed him wrongfully. In my haste in jumping from the window I lost my knife but I never knew where until I heard that it was found in the room alongside the body."

Parada was sentenced to death but King Peter V. of Portugal for some 'reason allowed himself to be persuad- ed to commute his sentence to life im- prisonment. It was an alternative far worse than death itself, for Parada was sent to the horrible prison of Re- lacam where for what seemed to him a span of many hideous lifetimes he languished in a low-built torture cell in which he had to move about in a stooping position.

,',

Thereafter King Peter received twice each year, just before his birthday and just before Good Friday a letter containing only these five words:

"Parada is innocent Pardon him!" The postmark was always that of a foreign port. It was undoubtedly from someone who knew that the

After Parada had crouched in his

terrible torture chamber for 15 years a man about to die in the hospital at Brabanza sent for the police officials and the mayor and made the follow- ing statement:

DETAINED

BY PIRATES

|

|

"I too had an insane grudge against the priest whom Parada swore to kill. I was in the church at Braga when he said he would cut his throat. I saw a chance of settling an imaginary debt! of vengeance. I entered the rectory early and remained concealed there until I thought it was time for Parada to come. Then I slew the priest."

The result of this confession

was

Parada's pardon and the abolition of the death penalty in Portugal.. But after Parada's release it was discover- ed that his mind was affected and although he Ilved old

to be and was revered by many as the prototype of the famous prisoner of the Chateau d'If-the "Man of the Iron Mask" he never entirely recovered his reason:

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL

TWO MONTHS SECURITY

A piracy, by between 30 and 40 pirates, armed with rifles, revolvers and hand-grenades, was reported to the Water Police this morning by Leung Muk, 32, master of two junks, on his arrival in the Colony.

According to Leung, he sailed with the two junks loaded with crockery and earthenware goods, valued $2,000, from Nam Hoi for Hong Kong on the morning of June 29.

On the same afternoon, whilst he was anchored near Tonglungsha Vil- lage, in the Shun Tak District, the pirates raided the junks, and took them to Pak Kau Village, where he was detained until August 31, when the pirates allowed him to proceed to Hong Kong.

REFIT OF

H.M.S. RENOWN.

After three years.. in Portsmouth dockyard, where it has been almost rebuilt, the 32,000-ton battle-cruiser Renown underwent trials recently.

cost

which

The reconstruction, which has radically altered the appearance of the Renown,

£3,088,000, equals the ship's original cost.

The main armament of six 15-inch guns remains, but the secondary armament and the anti-aircraft guns have been greatly strengthened.

CANBERRA, TO-DAY. THE NATIONAL SECURITY BILL, PROVIDING FOR EMERGENCY POWERS SIMILAR TO THOSE RE- CENTLY PASSED BY THE BRI- INTRO- DUCED BY MR. HUGHES, MINIS- TER OF INDUSTRY, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

TISH PARLIAMENT, WAS

Mr. Hughes said that powers