Aware of this, the miscreants who had carried off
the duke discharged their pistols at him, and leaving him, as
they supposed, for dead, fled to avoid capture, and were seen or
heard of no more. His grace was carried in an insensible
condition to a neighbouring house, but not having received
serious hurt, recovered in a few days. The court and town were
strangely alarmed by this outrage; nor as time passed was there
any clue obtained to its perpetrators, though the king offered a
thousand pounds reward for their discovery.
The duke and his family, however, had little doubt his grace of
Buckingham was instigator of the deed; and Lord Ossory was
resolved the latter should be made aware of their conviction.
Therefore, entering the royal drawing-room one day, he saw the
duke standing beside his majesty, and going forward addressed
him. "My lord," said he in a bold tone, whilst he looked him
full in the face, "I know well that you are at the bottom of this
late attempt upon my father; and I give you fair warning, if my
father comes to a violent end by sword or pistol, or if he dies
by the hand of a ruffian, or by the more secret way of poison, I
shall not be at a loss to know the first author of it: I shall
consider you as the assassin; I shall treat you as such; and
wherever I meet you I shall pistol you, though you stood behind
the king's chair; and I tell you it in his majesty's presence,
that you may be sure I shall keep my word.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228