48
H. J. LETHBRIDGE
On 9 June, after the party had left Mechiguig and was passing through a grove of tamarisks, Bechaoui, who had now joined the caravan, suddenly seized Morès' carbine and unhorsed him. He was cut in the head by a blow from a sword but managed to get on his feet and back up against a tree, from which position the lion-hearted adventurer opened fire with his revolver on his assassins. Surrounded by over forty Touaregs, he fought bravely, killing and wounding a number of his assailants. Then he was felled finally by two shots, and a knife plunged into his heart. And so the Emperor of the Badlands died amidst his servants in the desert.
It is not necessary to detail what happened after the Marquis' death—the long search for and trial of his assassins, 52 his apotheosis as a great national hero, the creation of a nationalist legend—except to add that his body was recovered by a French patrol, shipped to Marseilles; then conveyed to Paris and to a magnificent ceremony at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The funeral oration was declaimed by Maurice Barrès, the novelist and perfervid nationalist; the distinguished mourners were joined by contingents of butchers from La Villette, though accounts do not tell us whether they came wearing their Stetsons. The London Times reported of the funeral;
Speeches were delivered today in which the murder of Morès was attributed to the Jews and the English and the listeners cried, "A bas l'Angleterre! A bas les Juifs!”
Even on his catafalque the stone-cold Morès was a centre of agitation.
It is not a coincidence, I feel, that many people continued to doubt the official versions of the deaths of both these adventurers. Although Owen, who signed Mayréna's death certificate, declared that death was due to snakebite, the symptoms exhibited by the dying man were not those usually associated with death from a venomous snake—there was only one puncture of the skin and death came too rapidly. It is possible, then, that Mayréna either killed himself by taking poison and pricking his own leg to simulate a snakebite; or that the libidinous Mayréna was killed by a poison arrow shot by a jealous Malay. Morès' death, on the other hand, has been blamed by French nationalists on the dastardly British Secret Service and even, according to another version, on a conspiracy hatched by Constans, his political allies and Jewish friends. In both cases we are not likely to resolve the puzzle at this date.
48
H. J. LETHBRIDGE
On 9 June, after the party had left Mechiguig and was passing through a grove of tamarisks, Bechaoui, who had now joined the caravan, suddenly seized Morès' carbine and unhorsed him. He was cut in the head by a blow from a sword but managed to get on his feet and back up against a tree, from which position the lion- hearted adventurer opened fire with his revolver on his assassins. Surrounded by over forty Touaregs, he fought bravely, killing and wounding a number of his assailants. Then he was felled finally by two shots, and a knife plunged into his heart. And so the Emperor of the Badlands died amidst his servants in the desert.
It is not necessary to detail what happened after the Marquis' death--the long search for and trial of his assassins, 52 his apotheosis as a great national hero, the creation of a nationalist legend-except to add that his body was recovered by a French patrol, shipped to Marseilles; then conveyed to Paris and to a magnificent ceremony at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The funeral oration was declaim- ed by Maurice Barrès, the novelist and perfervid nationalist; the distinguished mourners were joined by contingents of butchers from La Villette, though accounts do not tell us whether they came wear- ing their Stetsons. The London Times reported of the funeral;
Speeches were delivered today in which the murder of Morès was attributed to the Jews and the English and the listeners cried, "A bas l'Angleterre! A bas les Juifs!”
Even on his catafalque the stone-cold Morès was a centre of agita- tion.
It is not a coincidence, I feel, that many people continued to doubt the official versions of the deaths of both these adventurers. Although Owen, who signed Mayrèna's death certificate, declared that death was due to snakebite, the symptoms exhibited by the dying man were not those usually associated with death from a venomous snake-there was only one puncture of the skin and death came too rapidly. It is possible, then, that Mayréna either killed himself by taking poison and pricking his own leg to simulate a snakebite; or that the libidinous Mayréna was killed by a poison arrow shot by a jealous Malay. Morès death, on the other hand, has been blamed by French nationalists on the dastardly British Secret Service and even, according to another version, on a con- spiracy hatched by Constans, his polítical allies and Jewish friends. In both cases we are not likely to resolve the puzzle at this date.
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