HORRIBLE REMINISCENCE.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1122, 28 August 1882, Page 2

HORRIBLE REMINISCENCE.

♦- Philios Alexin, who died in Lamia the pther day, at the great age of ninety-four, had in his youth contributed — but only under compulsion — to one of the most terrible deeds perpetrated by the Turkish forces to crush the Greek rebellion of 1821. He was plying his trade as a mastei° carpenter, in his native town, when Omar Brionig Pasha entered Lamia in triumph, after his victory over the insurgents at hermopyle, where he had taken several insurrectionary leaders prisoners amongst then the celebrated champion of . Hellenic liberties, Athanasios Diakos. The fierce Moslem commander doomed that heroic youth to be spitted on a wooden stake and roasted alive and Alexin was required, on pain of death, to supply the executioners of this barbarous sentence with all the implements needed for its fulfilment ; that is to say, a spit of timber, fitted at. either end with a handle, by which it might be made to revolve, and two stout wooden .trestles, provided with 1 circular grooves, wherein both extremities of the stake might have free play during theluckless patriot's martyrdom. On the 29th April, 1821, as soon as Alexin had completsd the task imposed upon him, the Pasha's inhuman decree was carried out to the letter. Diakos displayed the most unflinching fortitude throughout his horrible torments ; and his death scene, to which Alexin was a witness, made an impression upon the latter's mind that time could not efface. He retained it, indeed, with undiminished vividness until within a few hours of his demise.