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CAVALIERE TRENCA,
IN walking down the Rue St. Michael, the passenger's eye is arrested by a
large house, on which, over the doorway, is a marble tablet inscribed —
A CARLO TRENCA
CAVALIERE COMMENDATORE DEI SANTI MAURIZIO E
LAZZARO, PRESIDE AL GOVERNO, AGLI STUDI, ALLA
MILIZIA NAZIONALE DI MENTONE E ROCCABRUNA,
PER DOTTRINA, PER PATRIA CARITA, PER VIRTU
PRECLARO; BENEMERITO CARISSIMO
I MEMORI CONCITTADINI
4 GUIGNO 1854.
Then he will ask, who was this Cavaliere Trenca so beloved by his fellow
countrymen; and in answer to his questions concerning his life, will come such
an outpouring of praise, mingled with recollections of his life, that it may be
well to give a short sketch of what that life was.
The Trenca family can trace back its pedigree to the foundation of its native
town of Mentone, where one of the first houses which existed was built by one of
its members. The great grandfather of Col. Trenca obtained the rank of baron
from the king of Poland, but the grandson of the 1st baron was induced to
destroy his patent of nobility in 1793, at the time when the terrors of the
revolution, often caused the name of aristocrat to be fatal both to the life and
fortunes of its possessor. On the maternal side also Cavaliere Trenca was of
honorable birth, his mother Felicite Levamis having been taken under the
protection of the princesses of Piedmont, when her father Antoine fled from
Mentone, to escape the vengeance of the Prince of Monaco, which he had incurred
through his devotion to the royal house of Savoy. One of the princesses was
godmother to Felicité, who was well educated by her care, and endowed with a
marriage portion, which descended to her son Charles.
Nature had bestowed brilliant talents upon Charles Trenca, and these were
carefully cultivated by his parents; at Nice, at Marseilles, and at Turin, his
education was successfully carried on in turn, and at the age of eighteen he had
not only been well grounded in all the more solid branches of learning, but had
become distinguished among the musicians of his native land by his musical
compositions, which were chiefly on sacred subjects. At eighteen he was
appointed Lieutenant of the Guard by Honorius V. of Monaco, and in the following
year was married to Mademoiselle Francoise de Monleon, the daughter of an old
and noble Mentonese family. In 1828 he was appointed Captain of the Carabineers,
and in 1831 Portuguese Consul in the Principality. But in the same year his
discontent with the government of the Princes of Monaco was first openly
manifested, and it soon became the great object of his life to free the people
of his native place from the heavy burdens which were inflicted on them by the
tyranny of their rulers. The feelings of Charles Trenca, were too clearly
manifested to escape the notice of the ruling powers, and led in 1835 to his
being deprived of his military rank; but this was voluntarily restored to him by
Prince Honorius V. two years later; and his successor Florestan, anxious to gain
Trenca as a partisan, chose him as one of the deputation which was sent to Turin
to receive the investiture of Mentone, Roccabruna and their dependencies, while
the Duke of Valentinois, the hereditary prince, chose him as his equerry during
his stay at Turin, in preference to all his other officers. Here Charles Trenca
received the cross of a knight of the order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, and
was admitted to a private audience with Charles Albert, in which, after the king
had questioned him on the political state of Mentone, he took leave of him with
these words: "M. Trenca je suis charmé de vous avoir connu, si je puis
être utile à vous ou à votre famille j'en saisirai toujours l'occasion avec
plaisir."
The honours conferred upon him in Sardinia, induced the prince of Monaco to
offer M. Trenca the appointment of Comptroller General of the Finances on his
return home, an office which he accepted with reluctance. The year following he
again accompanied the Duke of Valentinois to Turin, and on this occasion was
entrusted by the Sardinian Minister of Foreign Affairs with the delicate mission
of sounding his master as to his intentions regarding the cession of Monaco to
Sardinia. The suspicion which this difficult task threw upon his fidelity, led
to an accusation that he was in secret correspondence with the Sardinian
government. Trenca, who had never concealed his sympathy with Sardinia, and his
desire to establish more intimate relations between that court and his own,
immediately resigned his offices, and called for a public enquiry into his
conduct; but both were equally refused by the Prince of Monaco, who, to show his
continued confidence in him, conferred on him the additional office of High
Treasurer. In this and in all his other employments, his one object still
continued to be the interests of the people, and to raise his voice against the
daily increasing burdens which the tyranny of the government imposed upon them.
At length 1847 arrived, when the people had to choose between absolute ruin and
a revolution; and then, when once more Charles Trenca exhorted the Prince of
Monaco to save himself, and secure the gratitude of his subjects, by a generous
change of conduct, the Prince only replied by abruptly depriving him of all his
offices, and dismissing him at once from his favour. Thus, without seeking it,
he was released from all his oaths of allegiance, and when a bloodless
revolution had given freedom to his native land, Trenca at once found himself
looked upon as the chief mover in the provisional government, where he continued
to maintain a patriotic course of conduct, from which his former masters, now
only too sensible of what they had lost, vainly endeavoured to withdraw him. The
gratitude of his fellow citizens first appointed him Colonel Commander-in-Chief
of the municipal guard, and President of the government, and afterwards sent him
as the head of the Commissioners appointed to carry to Turin and Paris the
unanimous vote of the people for annexation to Sardinia. This deputation met
with a favorable reception at Turin, and left it, animated by hopes of a speedy
and successful result at Paris; but there they found that their adversaries had
raised every possible obstacle against them. After a month, however, of
incessant toil, they were overcome by M. Trenca's unwearied efforts, and he had
the joy of announcing to his eagerly-expectant fellow citizens, that their
wishes were accomplished. On this the brightest day of his life, he exclaimed,
"Quel triomphe, je suis heureux j'ai sauvé mon pays, jè puis mourir
maintenant et entonner le cantique du prophète, nunc dimitte," &c.
After winding up the affairs of the annexation, the Commissioners returned
to Mentone, where they were greeted with the utmost enthusiasm by the whole
population, who rushed out in crowds along the Genoa road to meet them. A
triumphal arch, with the inscription "Ai deputati di Mentone e Roccabruna
reduci da Torino, la Patria Riconoscente," was erected at the entrance of
the town, and the whole population, and the National Guard with music and flags
flying, came to the house of M. de Monleon where M. Trenca had alighted, to
compliment him on the success of his important mission.
In the following month the provisional government resigned its office into
the hands of the commissioner extraordinary of the King of Sardinia, who
immediately applied to have the honour of Col. of S.S. Maurice and Lazare
conferred upon Trenca, as the most meritorious citizen of Mentone. Soon after
this he was appointed by Charles Albert to attend the Marchese Ricci at the
Congress of Brussels, of which the object was the amicable settlement of the
differences between Austria and Sardinia. At Turin he was again received by his
sovereign with the most flattering marks of attention. But the conferences at
Brussels were soon cut short by the fatal battle of Novara and the abdication of
the king, when Trenca, who was overcome with grief at the misfortunes of his
benefactor, flew to Paris to endeavour to arrest the dangers which threatened
Mentone in consequence, and obtained from the French court a ratification of
their former promises ; thence he proceeded to Turin, and after numberless
difficulties, he obtained from Victor Emmanuel the decree which united the
communes of Mentone and Roccabruna to the division of Nice. The proclamation of
this decree, and of the measures for the future government of the country, gave
the greatest satisfaction to the people, and the vote of the Piedmontese
Chambers being all that was now wanted to complete legally the desired
annexation to Sardinia, Col. Trenca was again chosen to go to Turin on the
meeting of Parliament, to bring the subject before it as speedily as possible.
Circumstances rendered this a very difficult task, but after some months of
vexatious delay, the annexation was almost unanimously agreed to by the Chamber
of Deputies; and it had only to be confirmed by the Senate, when the dissolution
of the Parliament in November once more caused a delay.
The following year, 1850, M. Trenca again hastened to Turin, and after ten
months of the most harassing delays, he was at last able to return to Mentone,
with the assurance of the Sardinian ministry, that the vote for the annexation
should be fully and legally ratified. Great was the joy of the people when M.
Trenca brought them these happy tidings; the day of his return was kept as one
of public rejoicing, and a grand banquet was prepared in his honour by his
fellow-citizens. The next six months passed quietly away, till another vexatious
obstacle to the prosperity of the town arose, from the French government
objecting to receive Mentonese vessels bearing the Sardinian flag. This again
called M. Trenca to Turin, and from thence to Paris, where, aided by his friend
Comte Maurice de Partouneaux, a warm and constant defender of the Mentonese
people, he was at last able to overcome all the difficulties raised by designing
partisans of the Prince of Monaco, and gained the desired permission, that for
the future Mentonese vessels might enter all French ports on the same conditions
and under the same flag as the Sardinian ships.
Matters being thus satisfactorily arranged in Mentone, Charles Trenca devoted
some months to a political tour in Germany and Russia, after which he gave
himself up with new experience to the organization of schools in his native
town, and to the improvement of the public instruction in all its branches. His
duties as Colonel of the National Guard also occupied a large portion of his
time.
The last political transaction in which Trenca took a part, was heading the
deputation sent to meet the President of the French republic, Prince Louis
Napoleon, at Toulon, where his gracious reception and promises of protection
raised the brightest hopes in the minds of all those who were admitted to
converse with him. Soon after this Col. Trenca's health began to fail; still he
could not be persuaded to leave his work unfinished. "Que je puisse
régénérer mon pays," he often said, "et je mourirai content. Je ne
demande rien pour moi, mon seul desir est de voir ma patrie affranchie et
heureuse." But too soon an attack of typhus fever, supervening upon other
maladies, proved fatal; and thus at the age of 52, this good man was lost to his
country. His funeral was attended by almost the whole population of Mentone and
Roccabruna, headed by the clergy, the national guard, the garrison and the
various schools. His praises were rehearsed in sermons preached by the clergy in
the churches which were hung with mourning, and in the funeral orations which
were pronounced over his grave both in French and Italian. But more lasting than
these, or even than the inscription on. the tablet, which the whole population
of the two communes once more assembled to place (June 4, 1854) over the door of
his house, is the feeling of love and respect which still encircles his memory,
and which will prevent his name from ever being forgotten in his native town.
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