Sir Charles and Mr. Lowther saw them in bed in the lodgings that had been
taken for them. They were so stiff with the bastinado they had met with,
that they were unable to help themselves. Mr. Merceda had been more
severely (I cannot call it more cruelly) treated than the other; for he,
it seems, was the greatest malefactor in the attempt made upon the lady:
and he had, besides, two or three gashes, which, but for his struggles,
would have been but one.
As you, my dear, always turn pale when the word masquerade is mentioned;
so, I warrant, will ABBEVILLE be a word of terror to these wretches, as
long as they live.
Their enemies, it seems, carried off their arms; perhaps, in the true
spirit of French chivalry, with a view to lay them, as so many trophies,
at the feet of the insulted lady.
Mr. Lowther writes, that my brother and he are lodged in the hotel of a
man of quality, a dear friend of the late Mr. Danby, and one of the three
whom he has remembered in his will; and that Sir Charles is extremely
busy in relation to the executorship; and, having not a moment to spare,
desired Mr. Lowther to engage his friend, to whom he wrote, to let us
know as much; and that he was hastening every thing for his journey
onwards.
Mr. Beauchamp's narrative of this affair is, as I told you, very
circumstantial. I thought to have shortened it more than I have done.
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