The coach sent to carry off Anne Bracegirdle departs without her. In Drury Lane, Mr. Page intervenes, and Captain Richard Hill draws his sword; Lord Mohun remains at his side. A few hours later, the actor William Mountfort, whom Hill regards as his rival for Bracegirdle’s affections, will be mortally wounded. Mountfort is married to another woman.
It is the ninth of December, 1692. Hill bitterly reproaches Mountfort for standing between him and Bracegirdle. For several days past, he has openly vowed vengeance. A witness, George Powell, swears he heard him declare he would have Mountfort’s blood; John Hudson recounts words of similar import. Elizabeth Sandys recalls a supper where Hill threatened to stab the actor should he thwart his designs. According to her testimony, Mohun thereupon promised to “stand by his friend.” Such reported words do not, in themselves, establish a murderous conspiracy, yet they impart an ominous direction to the night’s events.
The affray had commenced near Lord Craven’s house, as Bracegirdle was returning home in the company of her mother and Page. Two soldiers wrenched her from Page’s arm; others fell upon the company. Her mother clung fast about her neck, barring the way to the coach. Page ran to summon help. Hill drew his blade, struck both Page and the mother, and then conducted Bracegirdle to her lodgings, keeping one hand upon her person and the other upon his weapon. Arrived at her door, he threatened Page once more. The young woman had escaped abduction, but not the dominion of men bent on deciding whither she should go and with whom she must live.
Their violent design having miscarried, Hill and Mohun kept watch before Bracegirdle’s lodgings in Howard Street. The soldiers had been dismissed, yet the two gentlemen lingered. The household was in a state of alarm. Mary Page crossed the street to warn Mrs. Mountfort that it would be prudent to send for her husband or provide him with an escort. Bracegirdle and her household knew that Hill was armed; they could not tell whether Mountfort had received their warning.
Yet he turned into the street. The depositions of the witnesses diverge from the very moment of their meeting. According to Mrs. Brown, Mohun embraced Mountfort, assured him he held him in great esteem, and professed a desire to avert all quarrel. He explained that a difference had arisen between Hill and Bracegirdle. Mountfort replied that he knew nothing of the matter, and subsequently reproached Mohun for keeping company with Hill. Mrs. Brewer heard Hill bid Mountfort draw his sword; Mountfort complied. She could not say whether the wound was dealt before or after this movement. Mrs. Page, who had gone to alert the family, presently heard the cry of “Murder!” Mountfort entered his house leaning heavily upon her arm, said that Hill had slain him, and collapsed upon the floor.
Other witnesses describe a brief, ill-lit struggle in the middle of the street. Mary Page maintains that Hill alone had his sword drawn when she saw the two men pacing before the house. Later, she perceived Mohun armed as well. Bracegirdle’s servant, Elizabeth Walker, affirmed that she saw Hill and Mountfort exchange two or three passes; Mountfort then cried out that he was hurt and flung down his sword, a portion of the blade being broken. Hill took to his heels. Mohun remained upon the ground and surrendered to the watch. A neighbor, Edward Warrington, saw the combatants fighting, but the women gathered about them obscured the opening blows from his sight.
Mountfort did not survive his hurt. The judicial record indicates that the blade entered near his right breast, penetrating deeply. The player expired on the morrow. The Crown contended that Mohun had accompanied Hill in execution of a settled purpose and had aided him in approaching his prey. If the two men had concerted an assault, Mohun’s very presence might constitute complicity, even without his striking a blow. Thus the trial turned upon more than the question of who held the weapon. It fell to the court to determine whether Mohun stood by as an accomplice, or whether he had merely been drawn into a quarrel that Hill alone rendered fatal.
Anne Bracegirdle recounted the attempt upon her person: the coach held in readiness, the ruffians who seized her, and Hill escorting her and her mother with his naked blade in hand. She affirmed that he breathed vengeance against Mountfort. Several persons confirmed that both men subsequently lingered outside her door. The prosecution saw in Hill’s threats and the botched abduction a patent motive for assailing Mountfort, while Mohun was said to have promised his friend his support. Yet Bracegirdle did not witness the delivery of the fatal thrust.
Mohun’s defense called witnesses of its own. They testified that he had spoken warmly of Mountfort but a few days earlier, praising his acting and expressing a wish to drink with him. Elizabeth Walker confirmed Hill’s armed presence and affirmed having seen the duel, yet the witnesses could not agree on Mohun’s position when the wound was struck. The maid had quitted Bracegirdle’s service after the initial proceedings. She stated she had been made to fear ill-treatment and imprisonment on account of her deposition. This disappearance long fueled suspicion, yet her explanation was at last tendered before the peers: she had concealed herself out of dread, she swore, and not because she had been bribed or intimidated.
During the proceedings, the peers repeatedly stayed the testimony to inquire of the judges what constituted murder by complicity in law. A man who is privy to malicious threats and accompanies the assailant for such an end may be found guilty, even if his own hand deals no blow. Mere presence, on the other hand, does not suffice where the encounter is accidental and no concerted act is proven. The judges thus distinguished between standing by a companion and accompanying him for the execution of a felonious attack. Yet these legal maxims could not resolve the pivotal question: had Mohun repaired thither to aid Hill against Mountfort, or had he merely followed him into a brawl born of the abortive abduction?
On January thirty-first, Mohun was brought from the Tower to Westminster Hall, preceded by the Gentleman Gaoler carrying the axe. He stood before the House of Lords as a peer indicted for aiding, abetting, and assisting Hill. The indictment described the wound to the right flank and named Hill as the principal who struck the blow. This solemn setting did not resolve the uncertainties of the evidence; it merely translated them into the question of law debated by the peers. They were bound to examine not only Mohun’s presence, but the felonious intent that such presence might betoken.
The trial occupied several days. The witnesses placed the men in the thoroughfare, recounted Hill’s threats, and described the mortal thrust; yet no single narrative could reconcile every gesture. Mohun acknowledged having remained with Hill, but maintained he had taken no part in the stroke. The majority of the peers accepted this distinction. On February fourth, sixty-nine pronounced him not guilty; fourteen pronounced him guilty. He was discharged. Richard Hill remained the man whom multiple witnesses named as having dealt the mortal blow, yet this court was not convened to try his cause.
The verdict leaves a narrow, yet decisive, question at the heart of the affair: does standing by, after having promised to support a friend, make one an accessory to his deeds? In the judgment of the House of Lords, the proofs did not establish with sufficient clarity that Mohun shared in the murderous design. Bracegirdle escaped the coach; Mountfort perished upon his own threshold. Between these two occurrences lie dark threats, a shattered sword, witnesses whose view was obstructed, and an acquitted peer. The record concludes upon this scene, offering no account of the subsequent fate that befell Hill in the courts of law.