Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/311

Rh an end to the war. Of the methods he took to compass both those ends, I have treated at large in another work : I shall only observe, that while he was preparing to open to the house of commons his scheme for securing the publick debts, he was stabbed by the marquis de Guiscard, while he was sitting in the council chamber at the Cockpit, with a committee of nine or ten lords of the cabinet, met on purpose to examine the marquis, upon a discovery of a treasonable correspondence he held with France.

This fact was so uncommon in the manner and circumstances of it, that although it be pretty well known at the time I am now writing, by a printed account, toward which I furnished the author with some materials, yet I thought it would not be proper wholly to omit it here. The assassin was seized, by Mr. Harley's order, upon the eighth of March, 1710-11: and, brought before the committee of lords, was examined about his corresponding with France. Upon his denial Mr. Harley produced a letter, which he could not deny to be his own hand. The marquis, prepared for mischief, had conveyed a penknife into his pocket, while the messenger kept him attending in one of the offices below. Upon the surprise of his letter appearing against him, he came suddenly behind Mr. Harley, and reaching his arm round, stabbed that minister into the middle of the breast, about a quarter of an inch above the cartilago ensiformis; the penknife, striking upon the bone, and otherwise obstructed by a thick embroidered waistcoat, broke short at the handle; which Guiscard still grasped, and redoubled his blow.