SECTION XII
45. A Fallen President.
The following appeared in the papers on Dec. 4th, 1908, during a revolution in Hayti, when the president Alexis had fled to a French training ship in the harbour of Port-au-Prince:
"Port-au-Prince, Dec. 2.
"President Nord Alexis is safe on board the French training ship Duguay Trouin. At the last moment the President yielded to the pleas of those about him, and precisely at five o'clock a salute of 21 guns announced his departure from the Palace.
"Previously to his departure the French Minister and other foreign representatives, with a specially-formed committee, forced themselves on the President, who finally consented to withdraw. Shouts and jeers of derision greeted President Nord Alexis as he entered his carriage. The French Minister sat beside him, and threw the folds of the Tricolor over the shoulder of the President to protect him. Along the route the people lining the streets greeted the President with curses. When he arrived at the wharf the mob lost all restraint. Infuriated women penetrated the cordon of troops, and shrieked the coarsest insults in the face of President Alexis. The people tried to hurl themselves upon him, fighting with hands and feet with the soldiers, who, in order to disengage the President, discharged their muskets, and the crowd then fell back. President Alexis, still draped in the Tricolor, boarded a skiff, his suite tumbling in after him. Haitian, French, and American warships fired a salute to the fallen President. As he was embarking a woman aimed a blow at his side with a knife, but missed him. A man, however, succeeded in striking the President a glancing blow on the neck with his fist."
46. A Murder in Monaco.
In August, 1907, Mr. and Mrs. Goold, the Monte Carlo murderers, were arrested in Marseilles, to which town they had succeeded in escaping before the murder became known. The Monacan government demanded their extradition and France was ready to comply with the request. Mrs. Goold, however, was by birth of French nationality, and it was doubtful whether she had been legally married to Mr. Goold. Under these circumstances the French government refused to extradite Mrs. Goold, before it had been proved by inquiries in England whether or not a legal marriage had taken place between herself and Goold.
47. A Question of Interpretation.