to recite, will not easily give her credit for any extraordinary measure of virtue or of delicacy.  She seems to have been a cold, vain and interested coquette, who perfectly understood how much the influence of her charms was increased by the fame of a severity which cost her nothing, and who could venture to flirt with a succession of admirers in the just confidence that no flame which she might kindle in them would thaw her own ice.359 Among those who pursued her with an insane desire was a profligate captain in the army named Hill.  With Hill was closely bound in a league of debauchery and violence Charles Lord Mohun, a young nobleman whose life was one long revel and brawl.  Hill, finding that the beautiful brunette was invincible, took it into his head that he was rejected for a more favoured rival, and that this rival was the brilliant Mountford.  The jealous lover swore over his wine at a tavern that he would stab the villain.  “And I,” said Mohun, “will stand by my friend.”  From the tavern the pair went, with some soldiers whose services Hill had secured, to Drury Lane where the lady resided.  They lay some time in wait for her.  As soon as she appeared in the street she was seized and hurried to a coach.  She screamed for help; her mother clung round her; the whole neighbourhood rose; and she was rescued.  Hill and Mohun went away vowing vengeance.  They swaggered sword in hand during two hours about the streets near Mountford’s dwelling.  The watch requested them to put up their weapons.  But when the young lord announced that he was a peer, and bade the constables touch him if they durst, they let him pass.  So strong was privilege then; and so weak was law.  Messengers were sent to warn Mountford of his danger; but unhappily they missed him.  He came.  A short altercation took place between him and Mohun; and, while they were wrangling, Hill ran the unfortunate actor through the body, and fled.

The grand jury of Middlesex, consisting of gentlemen of note, found a bill of murder against Hill and Mohun.  Hill escaped.  Mohun was taken.  His mother threw herself at William’s feet, but in vain.  “It was a cruel act,” said the King; “I shall leave it to the law.”  The trial came on in the Court of the Lord High Steward; and, as Parliament happened to be sitting, the culprit had the advantage of being judged by the whole body of the peerage.  There was then no lawyer in the Upper House.  It therefore became necessary, for the first time since Buckhurst had pronounced sentence on Essex and Southampton, that a peer who had never made jurisprudence his special study should preside over that grave tribunal.  Caermarthen, who, as Lord President, took precedence of all the nobility, was appointed Lord High Steward.  A full report of the proceedings has come down to us.  No person, who carefully examines that report, and attends to the opinion unanimously given by the judges in answer to a question which Nottingham drew up, and in which