THE MOAT OF THE CITADELLE
where M. Jacquet, his friends, and Trulin were shot.
In consequence of the spy's information, Deconinck's house was watched. Informed of the recent search of Jacquet's premises, Deconinck was looking round for a safer hiding-place, when his next-door neighbour, who was in the secret, suggested that the armchair would be safer in her keeping. The offer was well-meant but unfortunate, as the Police, who were on the watch, seized the chair, smashed it and found the list. Returning at once to Jacquet's house, they arrested him and his daughter, and locked them up in the Citadelle.
At the same time, Deconinck, Maertens and Verhulst were arrested.
Jacquet's daughter, Melle. Geneviève, owed her life to lack of evidence.
The four men were tried on September 16th and sentenced to death. They were shot on the morning of September 22nd, and died bravely, "standing, their hands free, and their eyes unbandaged." Their last words, shouted together, were: "Vive la France, Vive la République." Their names are inscribed on the Roll of Honour of the Army, and the Journal Officiel of December 8th, 1918, announced that the Legion d'Honneur had been conferred on M. Jacquet.
Execution of Léon Trulin
When the war broke out, Léon Trulin, a Belgian subject, aged 17, was living at Lille. Intensely patriotic by nature, he burned to serve his country against the hated invader. With the help of a few comrades, among whom were Raymond Derain and Marcel Gotti, he got together various documents and succeeded in bringing them to the Allies across the Dutch frontier. In 1915, he decided to go back to France and enlist in the Belgian Army, in company with his friend Derain. On October 3rd they arrived at the frontier. For three hours, in the dark, they burrowed under the "live" wire entanglements, when suddenly the alarm was given. Lights flared up, shots were fired, and Trulin and his companions were taken. The documents found on Trulin proved to be his death warrant. His friends Derain and Gotti were condemned to penal servitude for life.
On his way to the place of execution on November 8th, Trulin's nerve (he was 18) gave way for a moment, but recovering himself quickly, he walked to the post with a firm step, and so another name was added to the long list of the victims of Kaiserism.
