unacquainted with the engagements his tenderness for her had induced him
to contract; that he thought himself obliged to perform all the promises
he had made her; but as the innocence of persons of her age was generally
exposed to court scandal, and as certain reports, whether false or true,
had been spread abroad on the subject of her conduct, he conjured them as
his friends, and charged them upon their duty, to tell him sincerely
everything they knew upon the subject, since he was resolved to make
their evidence the rule of his conduct towards her. They all appeared
rather reserved at first, and seemed not to dare to give their opinions
upon an affair of so serious and delicate a nature; but the Duke of York
having renewed his entreaties, each began to relate the particulars of
what he knew, and perhaps of more than he knew, of poor Miss Hyde; nor
did they omit any circumstance necessary to strengthen the evidence. For
instance the Earl of Arran, who spoke first, deposed, that in the gallery
at Honslaerdyk, where the Countess of Ossory, his sister-in-law, and
Jermyn, were playing at nine-pins, Miss Hyde, pretending to be sick,
retired to a chamber at the end of the gallery; that he, the deponent,
had followed her, and having cut her lace, to give a greater probability
to the pretence of the vapours, he had acquitted himself to the best of
his abilities, both to assist and to console her.

Talbot said, that she had made an appointment with him in the
chancellor's cabinet, while he was in council; and, that, not paying so
much attention to what was upon the table as to what they were engaged
in, they had spilled a bottle full of ink upon a despatch of four pages,
and that the King's monkey, which was blamed for this accident, had been
a long time in disgrace.

Jermyn mentioned many places where he had received long and favourable
audiences: however, all these articles of accusation amounted only to