Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/15

 s. v. JAN., wig.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

9

ma.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

" QUEBELLE D'ALLEMAND." In The Quarterly Review for October, 1874, there is a very interesting article on ' The Republic of Venice, its Rise, Decline, and Fall.' Among quotations from other authorities there is one from P. Daru's ' Histoire de la Republique de Venise ' (Paris, 1821), the passage being translated into English. This author, in describing the innumerable devices to which the Ten of Venice used to have recourse for getting rid of such persons as were obnoxious to their policy or con- venience, relates how in 1618 many hundreds of victims were tortured and done to death on charges of complicity in the alleged conspiracy with Spain. Even informers and witnesses against those accused, after being openly rewarded by the Council for their services, were either secretly executed or disposed of by hired assassins. Thus, says Daru,

" another witness, to whom a pension of 50 ducats per month and a gratification of 300 ducats had been assigned, was ordered to repair to Candia, where, immediately on his arrival, he was killed in a quarrel forced on him querelle d'Allemand as it is termed." Daru, liv. xxxi.

The term querelle d'Allemand is un- familiar to me. In the sense of a " forced quarrel " how exactly it applies to the a of the Kaiser and his ministers in 1 But what is its origin ?

HEBBEBT MAXWELL.

Monreith.

[Hatzfeld and Darmesteter's ' Dictionnaire General,' 2 vols., s.v. Allemand, merely says : " LOG. prov. Querelle d'Allemand, sans sujet." But Littre is much fuller (1863, vol. i.) : " Alle- mand (a-le-man), s.m. Ce mot est employ^ dans quelque? phrases proverbial^s : Une querelle d'allemand, c'est-4-dire une querelle sans sujet. . . .Quant a allemand, dans la locution querelle d'allemand, il s'agit bien, sans doate, des Allerrands. Pourtant on en a donn6 une Etymologic diffe'rente : on 6crit alors alleman, et Ton cite le dicton : Gare la queue des Alleman " Ce dicton a appartenu au Dauphin^, dont la region montagneuse entre le Drac et 1' Is ere 6tait occupee par une puissante et nombreuse famille de seigneurs portant tous le nom d'Alleman. Malheur au voisin qui provoquail un membre de cette famille ! il se les attiraii tous sur les bras. De 1'ardeur avec laquelle cette famille vengeait la plus petite injure est

aussi venu, dit-on, le proverbe : Faire une querelle d'allemand ; et Oudin (' Curiosit6s ranc.,' p. 4fi2) ecrit, en raison de cette origine: Querelle d'alleman. Mais je remarque qu'a la fin du XVIe siecle, Carloix dit querelle d'Alle- maigne, ce qui montre que, des ce temps-la, on regardait, dans la locution, allemand comme le nom de peuple."]

SCOTTISH CHIEFS. Will some one inform
 * ne if the chiefs of the Scottish clans receive

official recognition as such, and if so, what orm this takes ? Is the description MacGregor " of MacGregor," MacLeod " of MacLeod," MacLachlan " of MacLachlan," &c., used as implying chief ship ?

INVEBSLANEY.

OATH OF FEALTY : EDWABD III. On pp. 295-7 of the ' Histoire des Inaugurations des Rois ' (Paris, 1776) there is a graphic account of the ceremonies attendant upon the taking of the oath of fealty for the Duchy of Guienne by Edward III. in Amiens Cathedral in 1329. King Edward, we are informed, upon approaching the throne of his suzerain, was instructed by the Great Chamberlain to remove his crown, sword, and spurs, as it was contrary to the very essence of the act he was about to perform for the oath to be administered to him still vested in these outward signs of his independent sovereignty and of his knighthood. These details are apparently taken from some contemporary or nearly contemporary description of the scene, and I should be glad to know what this source may be. References to similar scenes con- taining the same details in contemporary chronicles or romances will be welcomed. CHARLES BEARD.

COL. A. R. MACDONELL'S DUEL WITH NOBMAN MACLEOD. My great-grandfather Col. Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell of. Glengarry (d. 1828) fought a fatal duel with a young subaltern, Norman Macleod, at Fort William, and was subsequently tried for murder at Inverness. I should like to know both the dates of -the duel and the trial and where to find any particulars of either, as I have been unable so far to find here the information for which I have been seeking. We had a copy of Mackenzie's history of the Macdonalds at home when I was a boy, but, speaking from memory, I do not think that any particulars were given in it. I remember meeting, when quite a boy, an old lady a Mrs. Mildmay, nee Drummond of Megginch who told me