His great-grandson was Charles, the fifth and last
Lord Mohun. This man, possessed of a passionate
and vindictive temper, lost his father early; his
mother married again, and his education was
neglected. When he had scarcely attained the age
of twenty he was mixed up in the murder of Mountford, the actor. He was tried before his peers in 1692, and was acquitted; but there can be no doubt
that he was associated in the murder. Seven years
afterwards, in 1699, he was again tried for his life,
along with the Earl of Warwick, for the murder of
Captain Coote. He was again acquitted. This second
escape sobered him for a while. For long he and the
Duke of Hamilton entertained ill-feeling towards
each other, occasioned by some money disagreement.
This came to a head in 1712, when it ended in a
challenge. Which it was, however, who challenged the
other was never certainly decided. Colonel Macartney
was Lord Mohun's second, and Colonel Hamilton
exercised the same office for the duke. They
met in Hyde Park on Saturday morning, the 15th
November, and swords were the weapons employed.
A furious encounter ensued, the combatants fighting
to the death with the savagery of demons, so that
when the keepers of the park, hearing the clash of
swords, hurried to the spot, they found both the Duke
of Hamilton and Lord Mohun weltering in their
blood and dying, and the two seconds also engaged
in mortal combat. The keepers separated the latter.
Then Colonel Hamilton and one keeper lifted the
duke; Macartney and the other endeavoured to do
the same by Lord Mohun, who, however, expired,
and his body was sent home in the coach that had
Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/262
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198
FOWEY