EYEWITNESS TO HISTORY : MATA HARI'S EXECUTION

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EXCERPT: ..."The first intimation she received that her plea had been denied was when she was led at daybreak from her cell in the Saint-Lazare prison to a waiting automobile and then rushed to the barracks where the firing squad awaited her.

Never once had the iron will of the beautiful woman failed her. Father Arbaux, accompanied by two sisters of charity, Captain Bouchardon, and Maitre Clunet, her lawyer, entered her cell, where she was still sleeping - a calm, untroubled sleep, it was remarked by the turnkeys and trusties.  The sisters gently shook her. She arose and was told that her hour had come.  'May I write two letters?' was all she asked.  Consent was given immediately by Captain Bouchardon, and pen, ink, paper, and envelopes were given to her.  She seated herself at the edge of the bed and wrote the letters with feverish haste. She handed them over to the custody of her lawyer.  Then she drew on her stockings, black, silken, filmy things, grotesque in the circumstances. She placed her high-heeled slippers on her feet and tied the silken ribbons over her insteps.  She arose and took the long black velvet cloak, edged around the bottom with fur and with a huge square fur collar hanging down the back, from a hook over the head of her bed. She placed this cloak over the heavy silk kimono which she had been wearing over her nightdress.  Her wealth of black hair was still coiled about her head in braids. She put on a large, flapping black felt hat with a black silk ribbon and bow. Slowly and indifferently, it seemed, she pulled on a pair of black kid gloves. Then she said calmly:  'I am ready.' .."