Francisco Ferrer; his life, work and martyrdom, with message written ...

;
56 Francisco Ferrer^
The word "School" was lost in the crack of the
rifles.
The officer approached him with a doctor. It was
seen that Ferrer breathed no longer. Death had been
instantaneous.
The prisoner's death being certified, the troops defiled
slowly before the corpse, then marched ofT in
order, and disappeared at the angle of the moat.
Then the Brothers of Peace and Charity approached
the corpse. The coffin was lifted on four shoulders, and
the procession returned along the road to the castle.
THE BURIAL OF
FERRER.
It was by a very special favor that the relations of the
victim were allowed to be present at his burial. Ferrer
remained visible in his open coffin, according to the Spanish
custom, until the last moment. The modest coffin of
blackened pine was brought down in the night. Ferrer
was stretched out in the same gray garments which have
been seen in his latest photographs. His head was
wrapped in blood-stained bandages, but this sinister turban
did not conceal the broken bones and the fragments
of his oozing brain. His right cheek-bone was broken in,
and an open wound stretched up to his temples. His
throat was bleeding a little, and had been stopped up
with a handful of chalk. In the middle of his forehead
a small orifice revealed the passage of a bullet, which had
gone out at the top of his skull. His face was bloodless
but his hands were swollen and black, and added to the
sinister horror of the spectacle. When the coffin was
lifted for burial, it was noticed that it had been standing in
a big pool of blood, and all through the funeral procession
the horrible box left traces of its passage along the road.
The authorities would not allow burial in a private tomb,
and the remains were consigned to the common ditch.
The family, however, was permitted to put a stone to indicate
where he had been buried. His mother was taken
ill during this painful ceremony. It is related that this
poor old woman came to the office of the Castle of Montjuich
the previous evening asking to see her son. not
knowing that he had already been shot. Permission was
refused without any explanations being given.