e he began
struggling with the fellow; and finally getting his foot under the
villain's, he unhorsed him, when both fell heavily to the ground.
Meanwhile his grace's coach having driven to Clarendon House, the
footmen had given an account of the daring manner in which his abduction
had been effected. On this an alarm was immediately raised, and the
porter, servants, and others hastened down Piccadilly in search of their
master, fast as good horses could carry them.

They had proceeded as far as the village of Knightsbridge, when reports
of muskets, cries for help, and sounds of a scuffle they could not see
for darkness, fell upon their ears, and filled them with alarm. The
whole neighbourhood seemed startled, lights flashed, dogs barked, and
many persons rushed towards the scene of encounter. 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."
No further attempt was made upon the Duke of Ormond's life.

Scarce six months elapsed from date of the essayed abduction, before
Blood endeavoured to steal the regalia and royal jewels preserved in the