Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 3.djvu/163

N° 32. his blow to make sure work: and concluding the chancellor was dispatched goes on with the same rage to murder a principal secretary of state : and that whole noble assembly are forced to rise and draw their swords in their own defence, as if a wild beast had been let loose among them.

This fact has some circumstances of aggravation not to be parallelled by any of the like kind we meet with in history. Cæsar's murder being performed in the senate comes nearest to the case: but that was an affair concerted by great numbers of the chief senators, who were likewise the actors in it; and not the work of a vile single ruffian. Harry the third of France was stabbed by an enthusiastick friar, whom he suffered to approach his person, while those who attended him stood at some distance. His successor met the same fate in a coach, where neither he nor his nobles, in such a confinement, were able to defend themselves. In our own country we have, I think, but one instance of this sort, which has made any noise; I mean that of Felton about fourscore years ago; but he took the opportunity to stab the duke of Buckingham, in passing through a dark lobby from one room to another. The blow was neither seen nor heard, and the murderer might have escaped, if his own concern and horrour, as it is usual in such cases, had not betrayed him. Besides, that act of Felton will admit of some extenuation from the motives he is said to have had: but this attempt of Guiscard seems to have outdone them all in every heightening circumstance, except the difference of persons between a king and a great minister;