"La Com

"La Comedie Est Finie!"

Bitterly, onetime Vichy Minister Pierre Pucheu had cried, "La comedie est finie!" when an Algiers military court condemned him to death for treason (TIME, March 20). Last week a higher tribunal denied him a new trial. No final clemency came from the somber Chief of State, General Charles de Gaulle, himself under sentence of death by the Vichy Government Pierre Pucheu had served.

At 3 a.m. on the ninth day after sentence, a guard unlocked Pierre Pucheu's cell, a chaplain said a brief mass. At the place of execution Pierre Pucheu spurned a blindfold, stared firmly at the firing squad, himself gave the command, "Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!", then slumped in death.

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