‘I have the happiness to send you a piece of good news, which made me wish for wings to have flown over to you with it.
‘My lady, Heaven be praised, is not dead, nor so much as hurt. I am thankful for this, Sir, on your account, not her’s.
‘I don’t know what possessed the people at Mr Bond’s, to tell me she was dead; the mistake, to be sure, was occasioned by the great confusion the family were thrown into, and indeed, from what I myself saw, I was sure she was actually dead.
‘Major Smyth lived ’till the surgeon came; but had been speechless for two or three hours, and died whilst his wound was probing.
‘My lady had only fallen into a fit, and the major having bled prodigiously, she received a great deal of his blood upon her linen, and as he afterwards contrived to throw himself on the bed, which was at some distance from the place where she had fallen, it gave occasion to Mrs Bond (who was herself the first person that entered the room, after the sad accident) on finding my lady lying senseless, pale, and bloody, on the floor, to suppose she had been killed.
‘This alarm ran through the family, and was confirmed to me by every one in it, as we servants soon quitted the chamber; and the major himself said, that you had discharged one of the pistols at your lady, and the other at him.
‘I returned to Mr Bond’s in the morning, after you were gone off, to enquire whether Major Smyth was alive or not; he was just then dead.
‘The waiting-maid informed me, that my lady, to their great surprize, was recovered, having only been in a fainting fit, which held her above an hour, without her shewing any signs of life; and that she had fallen from one to another ’till morning: and she farther said (begging your honour’s pardon) it would be no great matter if she had died in one; for she believed it was for no good she went into the major’s room at that time of the night.
‘I staid about the house all the day to pick up what intelligence I could from the servants. Young Mr Bond, with two or three men, went to your house, and not finding you there, I suppose, rode in pursuit of you; but, Heaven be praised, you have escaped their hands.
‘The waiting-maid, who is a very civil young woman, told me, in the evening, that my lady, being come a little to herself (though I believe not in her right mind) was informed of the major’s death; at which she was so exceedingly terrified, that finding herself ill besides, she confessed the whole truth of the matter, and proved, that the major died with a lie in his mouth: so that I hope Mr Bond’s family will not be so spiteful as to prosecute the affair any farther.