“MRS BRACEGIRDLE:—­’As I was going down the hill he said, as he held me, that he would be revenged, but he did not say on whom.  When I was in the house several persons went to the door, and afterwards Mrs Browne (my landlady), went to the door, and spoke to them, and asked them what they stayed and waited there for.  At last they said they stayed to be revenged of Mr Montford; and then Mrs Browne came in to me and told me of it.’

     “ATTORNEY-GENERAL:—­’Were my Lord Mohun and Mr Hill both
     together when that was said, that they stayed to be
     revenged of Mr Montford?’

“MRS BRACEGIRDLE:—­’Yes, they were.  And when Mrs Browne came in and told me, I sent my brother and my maid and all the people we could out of the house to Mrs Montford to desire her to send, if she knew where her husband was, to tell him of it; and she did.  And when they came indoors again I went to the door, and the doors were shut, and I listened to hear if they were there still; and my Lord Mohun and Mr Hill were walking up and down the street.  By-and-bye the watch came up to them, and when the watch came they said, “Gentlemen, why do you walk with your swords drawn?” Says my Lord Mohun, “I am a peer of England—­touch me if you dare!” Then the watch left them, and they went away; and a little after there was a cry of “murder.”  And that is all I know, my lord.’

When at the close of the case Lord Mohun was asked if he had anything to say in his defence, he answered: 

“My lords, I hope it will be no disadvantage to me my not summing up my evidence like a lawyer.  I think I have made it plainly appear that there never was any formal quarrel or malice between Mr Montford and me.  I have also made appear the reason why we stayed so long in the street, which was for Mr Hill to speak with Mrs Bracegirdle and ask her pardon, and I stayed with him as my friend.  So plainly appeareth I had no hand in killing Mr Montford, and upon the confidence of my own innocency I surrendered myself to this honourable house, where I know I shall have all the justice in the world.”

The trial, which lasted five days, resulted in a verdict of acquittal—­sixty-nine peers voting Lord Mohun “Not Guilty,” and fourteen finding him “Guilty.”

One would have thought that such a severe lesson and narrow escape would have given Mohun pause in his career of vice and crime.  On the contrary, it seems merely to have whetted his appetite for similar adventures.  He plunged into still deeper dissipation; one mad revel succeeded another; duel followed duel, all without provocation on any part but his own.  He killed in cold blood two more men who had innocently provoked his enmity, “as if increase of appetite did grow by that it fed on,” until he rightly became the most dreaded and hated man in all England, a man to whom a glance, a gesture, or a harmless word might mean death.