24 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
[24 $. No2., Jan. 12 °56. 
godfather, one Colonel Anselmne, 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 Maes- 
tricht, 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 captainey 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 Asso- 
ciation, 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 re- 
ceived the command of one of the forty divisions 
assembled for the purpose of proceeding to Ire- 
land. 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 Hast, 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 gentle- 
men, 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 al- 
together 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; and 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 con- 
tinued 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 ex- 
amined and searched their five prisoners separately, and 
charged them with having treasonable papers and pam- 
phlets, 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 Se- 
cretary 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 Mi- 
chaelmas 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 trunk, together with such other evidence as 
would be produced in Essex, was sufficient te bring them 
to their tryal, and therefore he moved the Court to bind 
them yer 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 gaye 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 Bar- 
tholomew Shower, Councillor Dolbin, and another, whose 
name the author hath forgot. The six prosecuting jus- 
tices were got there before them, with their subpcenaed 
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 Jgnoramus, where- 
upon 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 con- 
finement sometimes, and under bail at other times, con- 
tinued about a year anda half, which put Major Bernardi 
to the expense of some hundreds of pounds, and his two 
fellow-sufferers to as much.” — Pp. 80—85. 
(To be continued.) 
