formation desired by your correspondent ANGLOSCOTUS. DAVID SEMPLE.

Paisley.

Thanks to the extracts contributed by MR. VERE IRVING, we have now got some very interesting information from the records. From these, and another source to be cited presently, I infer that the John Hamilton employed to murder Coligni, and called by Mr. Froude "the brother or near relative of Chatelherault," was in all probability the "Prepositus de Bothvil," who in the forfeiture of Oct. 26, 1579, is styled the "brother of Bothwellhaugh. He thus turns out to have been "Provost" of the collegiate church of Bothwell, and a priest of the ancient faith, possibly outed from his living by the Reformation, and a marked man. The following notices from Bannatyne's Journal (edit. 1806) doubtless apply to him, p. 35:

19

The remarkable confession of " Arthure Hamilton in Myrritoun" at once explains the territorial connection of Bothwellhaugh with Ayrshire. The lands of Monktoun, with which the commendator of Aberbrothok bribed the assassin, are in that county, and seem, in 1590 and subsequently, to have been the property of a "David Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh," within the paroch of Monktoun, who appears in the Commissary Records of Glasgow as the creditor of a "Thomas Knicht in Prestwick" (in same parish) for rent of lands there. The editors of Wishaw, unaware of the case, supposed they saw an error, and altered conjecturally Monktoun into Monkland, a parish in Lanarkshire; thus rather misleading inquirers like myself till MR. IRVING came to the rescue. Who this David was is not stated. He may have

been another brother of the notorious James. Two sons (one Arthur) appear in David's "Testament" (Com. Rec. Glasg.) in 1613, when he died, though his tombstone in Crosby kirk is dated 1619, as stated in the notes to Wishaw. If so, he could not be the avus of Alisona Hamilton, served heir to a David Hamilton in 1602. It is curious that the local tradition of the ancient burgh of Prestwick assigns the murderer his last resting-place in its seabeaten churchyard, though presume he died in exile.

I

As for the "card" story, I gave it quantum valeat. It was told me on the spot many years ago by the late Professor Fleming of the Univer sity of Glasgow-a gentleman who was tolerably versant with the family history of his native county. ANGLO-SCOTUS.

In the account of the Muirheads of Lauchope, in the Appendix to Nisbet's Heraldry, it is there stated that James Muirhead, "linked in friendship, blood, and affinity with the Hamiltons," was married to Janet, daughter of James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, who was a brother of the house of Orbiston.

After the murder, Bothwellhaugh took refuge for a night with his brother-in-law at Lauchope, afterwards burnt to the ground by the Regent's party. His connection with the Orbiston family does not interfere with his relationship to the archbishop, as Calderwood says he was sister sonne to the bastard Bishop of Sanct Andrewes." W. R. C.

""

Glasgow.

THE CHEVALIER D'ASSAS.

(3rd S. xi. 34.)

In giving an answer to SEBASTIAN'S query, I cannot refrain from going into the whole question about the controversy which has been raised and the doubts which have been expressed as to the possibility or rather probability of the Chevalier d'Assas's heroic act, and his now historical exclamation. First of all, who was the Chevalier d'Assas? His family belonged to what the French call la petite noblesse, but dated from the twelfth century, as this is clearly proved by the genealogist Chérin, who searched the original documents. Louis (and not Nicholas, as some of his biographers have baptized him) was born at Le Vigan, in the Cevennes, in the year 1733. Thus he was only twenty-seven years of age when he died, for the engagement near Klostercamp (not Kampen) took place in 1760, and not in 1762 as SEBASTIAN asserts it. He entered the service very early, and was already captain of the Chas seurs du régiment d'Auvergne at the moment of his death. This fatal event happened, as is very well known, during the Hanoverian war, at Klostercamp, near Wesel, where his division was cut

3rd S. XII. JULY 6, '67.]

to pieces by the enemy under command of the Duke of Brunswick. On the evening of October 15th d'Assas went quite alone, they say, to a place near his camp, where there was a kind of grove, in order to watch the hostile enemy. All at once he found himself surrounded by German soldiers, who put their bayonets on his breast, threatening to kill him on the spot as soon as he would shout or warn his friends by any sign whatever. Preferring, however, the safety of his regiment to his own preservation, he ejaculated with force the famous "A moi, Auvergne, ce sont les ennemis ! and fell at the same moment pierced with bayonet wounds.

""

*

This is the plain popular story. I must confess that I find a great many improbabilities in it. First of all, one single man never goes out to reconnoitre the enemy; at least it is a very unusual thing. But even admitting this improbable hypothesis as a fact, who is there to prove that d'Assas really used the words above-mentioned? Who is to demonstrate that he had an interior struggle between the natural instinct of preservation and the duty to warn his friends? Was there time left to him for such an internal contest? Did the Germans not assassinate him as soon as they had seized him? These questions are very natural; they are produced by spontaneous induction. But now the truth-the real absolute truth where is it? I do not think that it will ever be obtained; but what I think highly probable is this. A man being seldom or never pathetic at the very last moment of his existence, I believe that d'Assas, seeing the enemy, used perhaps "Holà !" or "" Qui va là?" or any similar short exclamation sufficient to warn his companions of the impending danger they were in. (I do not mean to say at all that I accept this version of the occurrence as the only true one. I simply try to explain the popular hypothesis in the most rational manner possible; nothing else.) It is curious that at the time nobody spoke about the heroic act of the Chevalier d'Assas. The Gazette de France does not mention it; it only inserts (number of October 25, 1760) the name of the hero in the list of the fallen. He was even so obscure a man then that his name is misspelled in the Gazette. We read d'Assar instead of d'Assas. Voltaire was the first to call the attention of the public to the noble deed of the chevalier in the second edition of his Précis du règne de Louis XV, published in the year 1769. In 1768 he had already brought it to the notice of the Duke de Choiseul in a letter, which has been published since; but the French government had too much to do then to think or to discuss about such an insignificant subject as the unusual death of a

* I shall examine many other suppositions and versions of this story afterwards.

13

young officer. It was only during the beginning of the reign of Louis XVI. that people began to talk again about the occurrence near Klostercamp.

In 1777, Marie-Antoinette heard of the heroism of the Chevalier d'Assas. She expressed her sincere admiration, but also her intense amazement that such an act as his should have remained for so long a time completely unknown, and ordered some one to write about it to the Baron d'Assas, brother of the deceased, with the request that he should gather more details together about Louis and his noble sacrifice, in order to publish them in a kind of memoir. The baron readily responded to the demand, but at the same time availed himself of the favourable opportunity to ask an advancement for his two sons, and the authorisation of adding to his own name that of Klostercamp. These particulars will be found in a letter which he wrote to the famous patriot Palloy, in answer to certain questions which the latter had put to him concerning the family relations and the dramatic end of the Chevalier d'Assas. Palloy had also requested the baron to tell him whether there were any portraits of the hero in existence, because it was his intention to have one painted on a stone of the Bastille. The letters form part of the rich and interesting collection of inedited documents in possession of M. Feuillet de Conches, the wellknown amateur of autographs. He has recently commenced to publish them. (Louis XVI, MarieAntoinette, et Madame Elisabeth, 1864-1866, i.-iii. Paris, H. Plon.) The king wrote to M. Montbarey, Minister of the War Department, about the pending question, and finally, after a deliberation in council, a perpetual pension was granted to the family of d'Assas, represented by the eldest son of each new generation. They were also admitted at court, and received with much distinction.

*

Besides all this, the baron obtained the privilege (one which was very much envied at the time) of hunting with the king, and his eldest son was appointed "capitaine de l'artillerie." The letters patent creating this pension were forwarded on October 8, 1777, and registered on March 21 of the following year. This curious and highly interesting document now belongs to a private collection. It was sold by Livardet at a public auction of autographs held in Paris, on February 19, 1857. The following is worth quoting, because it contains, so to say, the official version of the affair near Klostercamp :

of the French Revolution, but Napoleon I. re-established *This pension was forgotten during the stormy days it in 1810, and it has always been acquitted since. Let me add here that a column was placed during the same year on the very spot where d'Assas fell, and his famous exclamation is to be found on it as an inscription. Le Vigan has erected a monument to eternize the name of its hero, and a street in Paris has been baptised "Rue d'Assas."

"Louis par la grâce de Dieu, Roi de France, etc.-De toutes les grandes actions que l'histoire a immortalisées, aucune n'est au-dessus de l'héroïsme avec lequel le sieur Louis, Chevalier d'Assas, capitaine de chasseurs au régiment d'Auvergne, s'est dévoué à la mort. La nuit du 15 au 16 octobre 1760, le prince héréditaire de Brunswick voulut surprendre à Klostercamp, près de Wesel, un corps de l'armée française commandé par le marquis de Castries. Le chevalier d'Assas, en mârchant à la découverte pendant l'obscurité, tombe dans une embuscade ennemie. Environné de baïonnettes prêtes à le percer, il peut acheter sa vie par son silence; mais l'armée va périr si elle ignore le danger qui la menace. Il crie à haute voix. A moi Auvergne, voilà les ennemis !' et dans l'instant il expire percé de coups. Si cette mort glorieuse l'a dérobé à notre reconnaissance, nous pouvons du moins en faire éprouver les effets à son frère," etc.

Where did they derive their information from? Probably from the Baron d'Assas' notes and Voltaire's above-mentioned letter. But then how did the latter manage to get his? This he will tell us himself. In a letter to Count Schomberg, dated October 31, 1769, we read :—

"Je n'ai fait que copier ce que le frère de M. d'Assas et le major du régiment m'ont mandé."

Regarding the peculiar construction of the phrase, one might be induced to think that already at the time that Arouet wrote the above, doubts were entertained as to the probability of the Chevalier d'Assas' heroic act, and also as to the manner in which it was executed. Was it really so? Is it even decided at present whether the story is fact or fiction? and if it is a fact, has it been definitively established now in what way it took place? I shall try to answer these questions in a following article. H. TIEDEMAN.

Amsterdam.

THE BELLS OF ST. ANDREWS (3rd S. xi. 437.) I was about to send you my view of these legends, but my reply has been most satisfactorily anticipated by your valuable and able correspondent F. C. H., and I would only beg to endorse it by the weight of my opinion, whatever it may be worth, and say that it fully agrees with my own. As for the letters E. o. R. they usually stand eorum, which may here be the founder's false concord for ejus, sumptibus being understood.

for

And as for "Kate Kennedy," that is evidently a word compounded of the bishop's name and the name of the bell, and with no other reason than thinking it a good joke, as the two names occurred on the bell, to join them together; and perhaps as an excuse for a holiday, they were slanderously joined together for the sake of more revelry and such like. H. T. ELLACOMBE.

WALSH OF CASTLE HOEL (3rd S. xi. 495.) The hypothesis of SP. may be very ingenious, but I would rather assign the origin of his Welshman's arms to an ancestor-Kadwalader ap Gronwy, Lord of Mochnant, co. Denbigh-to whom the

arms of Argent a chevron gules between three pheons, the two in chief pointing to each other, the one in base point upwards sable, have been assigned, and are also borne by Kadwgan of Bachan and the Kyffins of Glas-coed. See the Harl. MS., No. 1143. PINGATORIS.

RICHARD DEANE, THE REGICIDE (3rd S. xi. 503.)- Would that the regicidal mark on my ancestor's name were as apocryphal as is his origin from Suffolk ditches or Yorkshire dye-vats! I transcribe however, in extenso, his holograph now before me, referring to "Ipswich," where he seems to have had authority: more probably as port-admiral-the recompense, I grieve to say, of judicial treason-than in the service of the Lord Mayor of London:

"I doe certifye that ye Hoye Wm and John of Colchester, William Hutchhin (sic) Master, was by my order comanded out of Harwich for ye reliefe of the Shipp Lyberty when shee first came aground on Balsey Landes, and that I was an eye-witnesse of ye Dammage wch the sayd Hoy received therein; the charge for repayeing whereof will amount to 921 10 at least, as I am certifyed

by two of ye best Master Shipwrights of Ipswich, who by my desire made survey of her. Given under my hand the 23d day of Octobr, 1650.-RI. DEANE. "To all whome it may concerne."

Three memoranda are endorsed in several

scripts:

1. "Navy Office, 25° Octobr, 1650, Comrs for the Navy to the Comitee (sic) for the Admiralty.

"Concerning Mr Hutchin's Hoy, Capta Green's men, and other thinges."

2. " 1st November, 1650. C. N. for allowing 921 10 Od to Wm Hutchins for damage don to his Hoye in boarding the Libertie. "Ye bill made out on ye Shipwts certificat."

8-19

to recall the memory of my paternal ancestor, It is a strong, and to me a pleasurable contrast, Thomas Swift of Goderich, the father of the Commonwealth's Admiral Deane's son-in-law, who sold the larger moiety of his ancient estate in Herefordshire, to raise money for the king in his conflict with the rebel Cromwell, who had the the crown on his own head. decency, be it remembered, of forbearing to put

EDMUND LENTHAL SWIFTE.