The executions happened in the courtyard as the sun first climbed out of the sea and daylight raddled the sky over the harbor. It was said both prisoners, held up bravely and died like men, for they rose, shaved, ate and marched quietly under escort to the wall. Neither quailed or showed fear. Behind the blackened windows of the watchtower you could feel them staring. By the far wall across the yellow flags was a squad of soldiers who milled about guiltily but raised their guns on command.The prisoners took their places. One of them closed his eyes. There was a terrible minute of silence. On command the soldiers raised their guns
'Ready...aim...', cried their leader with hand upraised.
The colonel had refused the blindfold and at the last moment raised his chin to the fusillade. That was true, someone said.
'fire! '
Shots echoed across the valley, scaring the birds, and silence straightaway rose from the foothills, flew across the standing gorse and the heather-like maqui and settled on the mountaintops. The prisoners fell backward against the wall then toppled forward. Light-as-air shreds of bluish smoke from the gun barrels hung in the air and filled the nostrils of the onlookers with their acrid smell. Then the squad shouted
'Long live the Generalissimo! Long live the Generalissimo! '
After the execution no one was allowed to enter the prison yard, it was said, or claim the bodies or examine them. There was a little blood in the sand, but duck's blood might look the same. By report they were buried hastily in the middle of the night, borne to the cemetery in a military station wagon, and