Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/32

 godfather, one Colonel Auselinne, he accompanied him to Holland in the year 1674, to join the army of the Prince of Orange. Here he served until, by the springing of a mine at the siege of Maestricht, he lost the sight of one eye, and was shot through one of his arms, the bones of which were dashed to splinters. While recovering from these wounds at Utrecht, he married in April, 1677, a young lady of that city. In 1685 the Prince of Orange gave him a captaincy in Colonel Monke's regiment. But this service he quitted on James demanding the return to England of the English soldiers in the Dutch service.

In 1688 we find him refusing to sign the Association, and soliciting a pass for himself and his family, six in number, by means of which he got safe over to Calais.

On Bernardi's arrival at St. Germains, he received the command of one of the forty divisions. assembled for the purpose of proceeding to Ireland. From Ireland he was sent on James's affairs to Scotland; and narrowly escaped being made prisoner in Edinburgh. He eventually, however, reached London, and from whence, after disposing of some effects and his Scotch horses, he purposed to go over into Flanders: but here let us tell his story in his own words:

"Meeting with two gentlemen of his acquaintance ready to go out of town, in order to make the same voyage, he went with them to Colchester, where they were recommended to a master of a ship, who was in a short time to carry over a lady of great quality to Ostend; but the wind happening to be fixed in the East, the lady ordered her trunks to be put on shipboard, and then went to a gentleman's house about five miles off, charging the master to send for her as soon as the wind came fair. Bernardi and his two friends met with other two gentlemen, who were strangers to them, and also unknown in the town, who were come thither to get a passage over in the same ship. They joined company, and lodged altogether for some nights at Mr. Cook's, then Postmaster in Colchester; but having notice of some busy people's inquisitiveness about them, Bernardi and his two friends. went to a gentleman's house about a mile out of the town, and the other two gentlemen went to the master of the ship's house. The second night after Bernardi and his two friends went into the country, intimation was given them that Sir Isaac Rebow, a Justice of the Peace, had issued out his warrant to apprehend them, and bring them before him; aud the wind coming fair the same night, they went directly to the master of the ship's house, in order to go on board. The master of the ship told them that he had sent a messenger for the lady two hours before, and expected her in an hour more, and sent some of his men to conduct them on shipboard, and said he would follow them, with the other two gentlemen at his house, when the lady came. A message came from the lady that she could not possibly come before the next day in the afternoon. Bernardi and his two friends continued on shipboard to avoid being troubled with the justice's warrant. The next day, towards the evening, came a company of train bands, with five hundred mob to the quay, where the ship then lay dry, at low water, about two miles from the town. This captain of the train bands commanded his men to go on board, and to bring all the persons they found in the ship to him.

These orders were obeyed, and Bernardi and the two gentlemen with him were seized and carried directly to Colchester Gaol, where the other two gentlemen, and the master of the ship, had before been made prisoners. The lady was coming to go on board, but being told what had happened, she returned back and never appeared; and six justices assembled to break open and search her trunks, exposing even her foul linen to the view of hundreds of people, but their worships could not discover who she was, neither had Bernardi, or any of the other four gentlemen, the least knowledge of her, but by name and title, which was the Countess of Arold, having never seen her in all their lives. When the six wise men had finished their search of the lady's goods, they strictly examined and searched their five prisoners separately, and charged them with having treasonable papers and pamphlets, though no such was found about them, neither had they any such; but some such things were found amongst the lady's goods. These justices sent an account of their proceedings to the Earl of Nottingham, then Secretary of State, and thereby represented Major Bernardi and the other four gentlemen to be accomplices with the said lady, and committed them to the county gaol at Chelmsford; from hence they writ to their friends, and got themselves removed by Habeas Corpus to London, and gave bail before a judge to appear in the Court of King's Bench the then next Term. Before the Term two of the five went off, either by composition or bilking their bail; but Bernardi and his two friends appeared, in hopes and expectation of being discharged by the Court. But the Attorney-General opposed their being discharged, having instructions from the Secretary of State so to do, alledging that they were guilty of treason. The Court ordered them into custody of a messenger, where they remained confined near seven months. Bernardi having for many years been well known to my Lord Rumney, who was the other principal Secretary of State, writ a letter to his lordship, and by his favour they all three were admitted to bail again upon the first day of Michaelmas Term, to appear on the last day of the same Term. They appeared accordingly, but the Attorney-General still went on with his charge against them, and affirmed to the Court that the treasonable papers found in the lady's truuk, together with such other evidence as would be produced in Essex, was sufficient to bring them to their tryal, and therefore he moved the Court to bind them over to Chelmsford Assizes, and they were bound over accordingly; and twelve of their friends gave five hundred pounds security each for their appearance; and in order to their defence they applied themselves to four eminent counsel in London, and gave them breviates and large fees to plead their cause, and provided coaches to carry them down, and to attend there and bring them back again. The day before the Assizes began they went down with their counsel, Sir Creswell Levinz, Sir Bartholomew Shower, Councillor Dolbin, and another, whose name the author bath forgot. The six prosecuting justices were got there before them, with their subpoenaed witnesses, who were all heard by the grand jury the next day upon an indictment preferred against them; but for want of sufficient evidence to find the bill, the grand jury rejected it, and gave in their verdict Ignoramus, whereupon they were discharged in Court by proclamation, and the six justices galloped home to Colchester in all haste, as soon as they heard that the grand jury had thrown out the bill of indictment. This prosecution, under close confinement sometimes, and under bail at other times, con- tinned about a year and a half, which put Major Bernardi to the expense of some hundreds of pounds, and his two fellow-sufferers to as much."—Pp. 80-85.