care if I
were hanged for him."

Such was the story which sent a thrill of horror through London on the
day following the tragedy, and which aroused a fury of anger against the
cowardly assassins; for not only was Jack Montford a popular idol who
had captured all hearts with his handsome face and figure, his clever
acting and his unaffected personal charm, but his wife, who had been
thus tragically widowed, was one of the most gifted and delightful women
who ever adorned the stage.

It was thus inevitable that Lord Mohun's trial by his Peers, which was
opened on the 31st of January 1693, in Westminster Hall, and which was
invested with all the pomp and ceremonial befitting such an occasion,
should attract crowds of excited spectators, curious to see the
principal actors in this sensational drama, and burning to see justice
done to the noble instigator of the murder. The pent-up excitement
culminated when Mrs Bracegirdle, looking more beautiful than ever in
spite of her pallor and evidences of suffering, entered the witness-box;
and every word of the story she told was listened to in a silence that
was painful in its intensity.

In answer to the Attorney-General's request that she should "give my
lord an account of the whole of your knowledge of the attempt that was
made upon you in Drury Lane, and what followed upon it," she said:

"'My lord, I was in Prince's Street at supper at Mr
Page's, and at ten o'clock at night Mr Page went home
with me; and, coming down Drury Lane there stood a coach
by my Lord Craven's door, and the hood of the coach was
drawn, and a great many men stood by it. Just as I came
to the place where the coach stood, two soldiers came and
pushed me from Mr Page, and four or five men came up to
them, and they knocked my mother down almost, for my
mother and my brother were with me.

"'My mother recovered and came and hung about my neck, so
that they could not get me into the coach, and Mr Page
went to call company to rescue me. Then Mr Hill came with
his drawn sword and struck at Mr Page and my mother; and
when they could not get me into the coach because company
came up, he said he would see me home, and he had me by
one hand and my mother by the other. And when we came
home he pulled Mr Page by the sleeve and said, "Sir, I
would speak with you."'

"ATTORNEY-GENERAL:--'Pray, Mrs Bracegirdle, did yo