and Hackman; but there can be little doubt of their fictitious character.

It is said that while he lay in Newgate, after his condemnation, the following letter reached him :

"To Mr. Hackman, in Newgate.

"17 April, '79.

"If the murderer of Miss Reay wishes to live, the man he has most injured will use all his interest to procure his life."

And that he replied as follows:

"CONDEMNED CELL, NEWGATE,

"17 April, 1779.

"The murderer of her whom he preferred, far preferred, to life respects the hand from which he has just received such an offer as he neither desires nor deserves. His wishes are for death, not for life. One wish he has could he be pardoned in this world by the man he has most injured? Oh, my lord, when I meet her in another world, enable me to tell her (if departed spirits are not ignorant of earthly things) that you forgive us both, that you will be a father to her dear infants!

"H. H."

The Story of the Duke of Hamilton's Duel with Loyd Wohun.

HYDE PARK, in the bad old days, was the scene of some notorious duels. One of the most sensational was that between Lord Mohun and the Duke of Hamilton in 1712, which cost the lives of both. The reader of "Esmond” will remember with what skill Thackeray has woven it into the plot of that noble story.

Charles Lord Mohun was a graceless libertine ; perhaps physical bravery was his sole virtue, if I may use the word in its classical rather than its modern sense. He had seen a good deal of military service; was an adroit swordsman; and experienced in all the details of the duello. While yet a young man he had incurred disgrace by the part he had taken, along with Lord Warwick and another friend, in a midnight brawl, which had resulted in the death of a Captain Coote. Both he and Warwick were tried by their peers; the latter was convicted of manslaughter; it was Mohun's good fortune to be acquitted. Some years later he was deeply implicated in the murder of Mountfort the player; was again tried, and again acquitted. He was a man of handsome presence, with the "air noble," and a dashing, daring aspect which had carried him successfully through many affairs of gallantry.

James Duke of Hamilton, on the other hand, was a

nobleman of high character, dignified by his lofty patriotism and eloquence. Queen Anne had bestowed upon him the unusual distinction of the Garter when he already wore the Thistle, and the Tory party looked upon him as one of its great pillars. Mohun was a Whig, and therefore politically opposed to him, but he hated him for personal reasons also. The two peers had married the nieces of the Earl of Macclesfield. By his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Gerard, the Duke had come in for the great Gerard estates. Lord Mohun, in right of his wife, advanced a claim upon them, which was referred to a Master in Chancery; and the two peers happening to meet at his house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Mohun forced upon the Duke a quarrel, pressing it so relentlessly that within an hour he sent his friend, General Macartney, with a challenge to the Duke to meet him with swords, on the following morning, in Hyde Park.

At seven o'clock, on November 15th, the Duke, with his friend Colonel Hamilton, appeared at the rendezvous, which was situated between the Ring and the Cake-House.* After the ground had been measured, the Duke charged Macartney with having instigated the duel, and when the latter expressed his readiness to take part in it, exclaimed, pointing to Colonel Hamilton, "My friend here will take his share in my dance." Swords were immediately drawn, and both principals and seconds plunged into the fray. Mohun received almost at the outset a wound which laid

*It is here that Fielding, in his "Amelia," places the duel between Booth and Colonel Bath. "It may properly be called," he says, "the field of blood, being that part, a little to the left of the Ring, which heroes have chosen for the scene of their exit out of this world."

him dead on the ground; the Duke was also severely wounded by his antagonist, and, while lying helpless, was stabbed to death by Macartney. By this time the clashing of swords had brought the park-keepers to the spot. They found both Mohun and the Duke dead or dying, and Colonel Hamilton standing beside them; Macartney had taken flight.

Writing on the same day to "Stella" (Miss Johnson), Swift says:

"Before this comes to your hands you will have heard of the most terrible accident that hath almost ever happened. This morning at eight, my man brought me word that Duke Hamilton had fought with Lord Mohun and killed him, and was brought home wounded. I immediately sent him to the Duke's house in St. James's Square; but the porter could hardly answer for tears, and a great rabble was about the house. In short, they fought at seven this morning. The dog Mohun was killed on the spot; and, while the Duke was over him, Macartney shortened his sword, and stabbed him in the shoulder to the heart. The Duke was helped toward the Cake-House, by the Ring in Hyde Park, where they fought, and died on the grass before he could reach the house; and was brought home in his coach by night, while the poor Duchess was asleep. Macartney and Hamilton are the seconds, who fought likewise, and are both fled. I am told that a footman of Lord Mohun's stabbed Duke Hamilton, and some say Macartney did so too. Mohun gave the affront, and yet sent the challenge. I am infinitely concerned for the poor Duke, who was a frank, honest, good-natured man. I loved him very well, and I think he loved me better.'

In due course Colonel Hamilton was put on his trial

at the Old Bailey and acquitted. In the following year General Macartney returned to England, surrendered, and was tried in his turn. He was found guilty of manslaughter only, though the Colonel affirmed on his oath that it was he who had given the death-stroke to the Duke. Colonel Hamilton, to avoid a prosecution for perjury, fled to the Continent, where he died about four months afterwards General Macartney died in 1730.

An attempt was made to put upon the duel a political complexion, and to represent it as forced on the Duke in order to deprive the Tory party of his great influence and valuable support; but the allegation was never substantiated.