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“On the 4th
of March, 1870, Thomas Scott was shot opposite
the fort, a little below the road leading to
the
Assiniboine River, after a sham trial, passed in
the absence of him that was doomed to death. M.
Riel says, “On the third of the same month
(March) we brought Scott before a tribunal of
war.” He was not brought before that tribunal of
assassin* before his sentence of death was
passed, and be was brought thither, not to plead
his cause, but simply to hear the reading of the
sentence already delivered against him.
“Among the
seven who formed the tribunal of war, one—only
one—had the courage to oppose the sentence of
death, denouncing it as a cold-blooded murder.
The six others shamefully bent their heads
before the petty tyrant's will. Eternal shame is
upon the heads of those six men. Their cowardice
has written on their heads the word assassin,
while the courage of the opponent makes today
the consolation and happiness of his conscience.
That man who fearlessly voted against the six
others, in spite of the abusive language and
threats, was Baptiste Lepine, Ambrose's
brother, who, with the five others, voted for
Scott's death. I said the execution took place
on the 4th of March, 1870. The details of that
butchery cause a human being to shudder with
horror, and it is hard to conceive how it is
that men's hearts can contain such wickedness,
can surpass in coldblooded cruelty of the most
ferocious animals. Six soldiers had been chosen
to shoot Scott. I have here again to write the
name of a. man whose behaviour in that
circumstance reflects on him the greatest
honour. Augustin Parisien, one of the six
soldiers, declared openly that he would not
shoot at Scott; and, in fact, he took off the
cap from his gun before the word of command
—“present”—was given. Of the five balls
remaining only two hit the poor victim, one in
the left shoulder, the other in the upper part
of the chest above the heart. Had the other
soldiers missed the mark unintentionally, or had
they willingly aimed too high, too low, or to
the side? It is unknown.
“However
that may be, as the two wounds were not
sufficient to cause death, at least sudden
death, a man named Guillemette stepped forward
and discharged the contents of a pistol close to
Scott's head while he was lying on the ground.
This ball, however, took a wrong direction. It
went into the upper part of the right cheek and
 came
out somewhere about the cartilage of the nose.
Scott was still not dead, but that did not
prevent his batchers from placing him, alive and
still sneaking, in a kind of coffin made of four
rough boards; it was nailed and placed in the
south-east bastion, and an armed soldier was
placed at the door. This would seem like a story
made at one's ease if there were not several
witnesses full of life who beard between the
hours of 5 and in the evening the unfortunate
Scott speaking from under the lid of this
coffin, and it is known that he had been shot at
12:30. What a long and horrible agony, and what
a ferocious cruelty on the part of his butchers!
The words heard and understood by the French
Métis were only these: ' My God! My God! Some
English Métis, and others speaking Scott's
tongue, heard distinctly these words, “For God's
sake, take me out of here or kill me!' Toward 11
o'clock, that is after ten and a half hours of
frightful agony, a person whose name I shall
withhold for the present went into the bastion
and gave him the finishing stroke with a
butcher's knife according to some; with a
pistol according to others. That same person
after having inflicted the last blow to poor
Scott, said, as he was coming now from the
bastion. “The son of a bitch shall not speak any
more; he is dead this time. The corpse was left
in the south-east bastion a few days, being
watched by soldiers, relieved each in tarn. On
the third or fourth night, I could not say
precisely which.
“The
corpse was taken out of the bastion, placed in
Dr. Schultz's sleigh, the same in which the
doctor had brought to jail Mrs. Schultz, then
sick, pulled the sleigh himself, as I have
stated in my second letter. That same vehicle,
now drawn by a gray horse, was taken toward the
Red River and stopped about one and a-half miles
from the fort, nearly opposite the River La
Seine. By means of a large stone tied to the
corpse, the body of Thomas Scott went to the
bottom of the river to come thence no more. A
few words more and I am through this horrible
tragedy. It was in the afternoon of the day when
the execution took place that the corpse was
placed in the coffin; and it was later taken out
of it in the bastion, but, in order to avoid
suspicion, a grave had been dug inside the gate
facing the Assiniboine River, a few steps to the
right, and it was there the coffin which was
thought to contain Scott's body was lowered. |
