It may be added that one of the most remarkable incidents in this celebrated beauty’s life was when by dint of tears and supplications she prevented Queen Anne from making Swift a bishop, out of revenge for the “Windsor prophecy,” in which she was ridiculed for the redness of her hair, and upbraided as having been privy to the brutal murder of her second husband.  “It was doubted,” says Scott, “which imputation she accounted the more cruel insult, especially since the first charge was undoubted, and the second arose only from the malice of the poet.”

Another tragedy of a similar kind was the murder of William Mountford, the player.  Captain Richard Hill had conceived a violent passion for Mrs. Bracegirdle, the beautiful actress, and is said to have offered her his hand, and to have been refused.  At last his passion became ungovernable, and he determined to carry her off by force.  To carry out his purpose, he induced his friend Lord Mohun to assist him in the attempt.  According to one account, “he dodged the fair actress for a whole day at the theatre, stationed a coach near the Horseshoe Tavern, in Drury Lane, to carry her off in, and hired six soldiers to force her into it.  As the beautiful actress came down Drury Lane, at ten o’clock at night, accompanied by her mother and brother, and escorted by her friend Mr. Page, one of the soldiers seized her in his arms, and endeavoured to force her into the coach.  But the lady’s scream attracted a crowd, and Captain Hill, finding his endeavours ineffectual, bid the soldiers let her go.  Disappointed in their object, Lord Mohun and Captain Hill vowed vengeance; and Mrs. Bracegirdle on reaching home sent her servant to Mr. Mountford’s house to take care of himself, warning him against Lord Mohun and Captain Hill, “who she feared, had no good intention toward him, and did wait for him in the street.”  It appears that Mountford had already heard of the attempt to carry off Mrs. Bracegirdle, and hearing that Lord Mohun and Captain Hill were in the street, did not shrink from approaching them.”

The account says that he addressed Lord Mohun, and told him how sorry he was to find him in the company of such a pitiful fellow as Captain Hill, whereupon, it is said, “the captain came forth and said he would justify himself, and went towards the middle of the street, and Mr. Mountford followed him and drew.”  The end of the quarrel was that Mountford fell with a terrible wound, of which he died on the following day, declaring in his last moments that Captain Hill ran him through the body before he could draw his sword.  Captain Hill, it seems, owed Mountford a deadly grudge, having attributed his rejection by Mrs. Bracegirdle to her love for him—­an unlikely passion, it is thought, as Mountford was a married man, with a good-looking wife of his own, afterwards Mrs. Verbruggen, and a celebrated actress.