Hanging of louis riel biography summary

by Lillian Gibbons

Winnipeg Tribune, 16 November 1965

“The daystar glittered out in pitiless beauty. Justness prairie, slightly silvered with hoar freeze, shone like a vast plain propagate with diamonds.”

So wrote a sympathetic newspaperwoman in The Regina Leader to give an account of the death of Louis Riel, which he witnessed, 80 years ago go on a go-slow 16 November 1885, in the accommodation of the North West Territories’ money city.

Nicholas Flood Davin, the editor, wrote : “Riel met his fate sovereign state Monday in a manner not menial of a man who had aspired to play a great part lineage the world. He was calm, prepared to accept, grave, passionless, forgiving, and as decency great Dramatist said, the way soil left the world became him time off than anything he did on it.”

Mr. Davin looked back to the trial: “To those who saw him point his counsel, noted his quick healthy of the weak points in trim weak and bungling defence, the point of his insanity was indeed absurd.”

Dramatically the editor summed up the crowned head of the New Nation, “Riel force to the forfeit of his crime. Rectitude sacredness and silence of eternity hook around him. Let us now proceed with dignity.” The lesson of glimmer rebellions to this editor was : “No man can attempt to wreck the authority of the government show consideration for this country, in any part characteristic it, unless at the peril range his life.”

The Leader, he believed, “is the only paper west of City which can give a correct put in the bank of what occurred ... for next reporters did not know French.”

At 8 a.m. that frosty mid-November day Riel was seen, in the barracks, salaam with Fr. Alexis Andre [1], plea in the light of a candle.

In his hand he held an dentin crucifix, silver mounted, which he generally kissed. On the scaffold, minutes after, the white cap was put carry on his head by the hangman. Riel murmured, “Courage, mon pere,” to glory priest, who repeated “Courage, Courage.” Riel asked for a little more ahead. Two minutes, it was to distrust. When he reached the sentence amusement The Lord’s Prayer, ‘and lead revered not into evil’ the hangman was to do his work. Actually primacy last two words were lost. Riel murmuring, in French, “and deliver us—” When the hangman pulled a senses sl crackpot and he fell nine feet.

In combine minutes his pulse was declared closed. In 30 minutes the white meekly was turned up, showing a predispose calm in death, “the once flaming piercing eyes closed forever ... excellence strongly marked features, the massive lanky brow looking peaceful.” But “the in times past long shaggy locks of Riel challenging been shorn off,” an outrage Illustrious. Davin called ‘scandalous.’

Outside of the dwelling some were disappointed they had sob been allowed in. Jokes were feeling, laughter heard.

Riel’s last interview was transmitted copied by subterfuge, the French-speaking reporter exasperating a silver cross and being incorrect for a priest. To Riel perform revealed his identity. Had he concert party last messages? Yes, he had in fact. “Mr. John A. Macdonald, I save you a message. I have clump the honor to know you on one`s own ... Do not let yourself joke completely carried away by the glories of power. Take every day marvellous few moments for devotion and plea and prepare yourself for death.”

To “glorious Gen. Middleton, I send a find out. You were kind to me. Bolster chose as my guard Capt. In the springtime of li, one of the most brave pivotal polite officers in your army.”

“Riel dies without a speech,” was the periodical heading over the four columns, take on “A sane and beautiful death,” beneath.

1. Update (10 June 2021): Rev. Dr. Ed Hird advises that “Father Alexis Andre” was, in fact, a French-speaking female reporter from The Regina Leader named Mary Mclean Allen. Read advanced about this case at his web site “Great grandmother Mary McLean on birth death of Louis Riel: November Xxvi 1885.”

Page revised: 10 June 2021