Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/370

 862

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[11 S. I. MAY 7, 1910.

trait, a cord. Mr. Tucker Brooke's extremely good edition of the ' Shakespeare Apocrypha ' has :

" A guarded Lackey to run befor 't [i.e., before a coach], and pyed Liueries to come trashing [tracing, pursuing, following] after ! t." ' The Puritan Widow,' IV. i. 36.

Mr. Brooke sees that trash = trace, for he quotes in illustration : " ile trace along with thee," i.e., I will follow with you (' Muce- dorus,' IV. hi. 30).

The most interesting case is the passage in ' Othello,' II. i. 312, w r here there is a play upon trash, i.e. rubbish, and the verb to trace, in the sense of to trash, to hold back, as in a leash :

If this poore Trash of Venice, whom I trace For his quicke hunting, stand the putting on.

Here trace is quite correct, for it means to hold back by a trace or leash, incorrectly called a trash. Of course no editor would think of allowing the correct form to appear here. Only Shakespeare himself could dare to do so. WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE PRINCE OF MONACO'S EXAMINATION.

IN the Tenth Series of ' N. & Q. J I printed a petition and some letters (vii. 125, 244 ; viii. 83) written by Honore III., Prince of Monaco, when a prisoner in Paris in 1794. The Prince after his arrest was officially examined.

The following is a translation of an inedited MS. of 8 pp. 4to in my possession, containing the particulars of this examina- tion, in the Prince's handwriting an ex- tremely curious example of inquisitorial procedure under the Terror, and perhaps an uncommon survival. There are a good many erasures in the MS. draft, some of which I am unable to decipher. The words in italics have been erased in the MS. The watermarks are a fleur-de-lis under a crown, and letter P, so it may have been the paper the the Prince customarily used before his arrest. Defects in the account may be explained by its being written by one old and feeble, accustomed to the highest luxury and now under the shadow of the guillotine.'

In the house of detention, Rue de Seve, 28 Germinal.

In case the Popular Commission submits me to an interrogation upon my detention, here are the answers which I should give to the questions, which will probably be the same as those which were put to me on 13 Germinal [April, 1794].

Name ? Honore Camille Leonor Grimaldi Monaco.

Age ? Born 10 Sept., 1720.

Married ? Separated since 1771. Not living with his wife since the year 1770.

Number and age of children ? Two ; the elder is 36 years of age, self-supporting ; the younger is more than 31.

Where is the older ? Under arrest.

Where is the younger ? I do not know.

Since when has be been absent ? I have in it pointed out that I write \vhile under arrest. The motive for this is expressed in the three following letters, copied from the letter of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of the Interior. But he cannot be regarded fas an &nigi4 because, during his absence, they have seques- trated a property which belonged to him by right of his wife, and which has been taken possession of by order of the executive power (Bring ccml shoic the letters of the Minister Sue's, the last of the three letters of the Ministers in this matter. Copy* &c.), tvho had acknoicledged that, on account of his quality as a foreigner, he could not be looked upon, nor treated, as an emigre, and could not be held to reside in France.

Where was I during the time of May Julv. 1789 ? 111 of the gout in my bed, where I iv- mained until the month of September.

On 5 and 6 October of the same year ? On my way to return to Monaco.

On 10 Aug., 1792 ? Ill with the gout in my house in Paris.

On 31 May, 1793 ? At home ill ivith the gout. Confined to my house by the same malady.

What had been my opinion on the occasion of the death of Capet ? I had not manifested any in regard to this. I had always respected and observed the laws, and have always been anxious to contribute to the happiness and glory of the French nation. Since then I have thought that as in my quality of Prince of Monaco, under the protection of France, I should not take any part contrary to the choice of the Government which the nation had re-established, and that in all slates of things, cases, and times, cases and in all times it has an equal duty to safeguard and to protect that which has been guaranteed and ]>r- tected by treaties recognized by the Constituent Assembly and by many subsequent decrees, but particularly by the Report of Citizen Carnot made 14 Feb., 1793, by the according to which the domain of the the Principality of Monaco has been reunited with the territories of the French Republic, and here are his own words, which he employed which show that he had never thought that the Prince had declared himself an enemy of France in the time of the Revolution, as h<- has always claimed its protection in the quality of a firm friend and ally : ' Your Commit!' thinks that in abolishing the honorary and tin- feudal possessions, so that all may be settled and free, it is obliged to protect and to safeguard all that belongs to him as a simple citizen. -Tin- French loyalty, throwing over the prestige of tin- dignity the lightning that dissipated them, will not annihilate those who were invested with tin- dignity, and who can always be citizens, although they were princes.' That was in the Report which was presented by Citizen Carnot on 14 Feb., 179 and printed by order of the National Convention in the name of the Diplomatic Committee. Evidently they had not thought that the annexa- tion of my country Monaco to France could deprive me of the safeguard and the protection whi