This pamphlet created a perfect fury of anger at Court, and very naturally aroused the resentment of Hervey peculiarly susceptible, like many who indulge in cruel satire about others. He wrote to Pulteney and demanded to know whether he had written the pamphlet, and upon Pulteney replying that he would tell him, when he admitted the authorship of “Sedition and Defamation Displayed,” Hervey worked himself up into such a fury, and was so egged on by the other courtiers--he was not a fighting man--that he got at last entangled in a duel with Pulteney. They met on a fine June afternoon between three and four o’clock in Upper St. James’s Park, just behind Arlington Street, Hervey being accompanied by Fox, and Pulteney by Sir J. Rushout. There appears to have been some pretty sword play, and both got slightly wounded--which shows that Hervey had some pluck--“but,” writes Mr. Thomas Pelham, a witness of the affray, “Mr. Pulteney had once so much the advantage of Lord Hervey that he would have infallibly run my Lord through the body if his foot had not slipped, and then the seconds took the occasion to part them.” Pulteney, then, in a very magnanimous manner, appears to have embraced Hervey, and expressed sorrow at “the accident of their quarrel.” At the same time he very unnecessarily added that he would never attack Lord Hervey again either with his pen or his lips. Hervey, however, showed his quality by not reciprocating his kindly feeling, but merely bowed and sulked. “And to use a common expression,” concludes Mr. Pelham, “thus they parted.” Sir Charles Hanbury Williams wrote some lines on this duel addressed to Pulteney. “Lord Fanny once did play the dunce And challenged you to fight And he so stood to lose his blood But had a dreadful fright.” Which effusion stamps Sir C. Hanbury Williams as a poet at once! But Lord Hervey soon had something more agreeable to do than even writing poetry or fighting duels. There had been a series of letters from the Prince, already published above, craving his father’s pardon, and these had, in no way, abated the King’s wrath. Neither was the Queen touched. But the King’s message still remained to be agreed upon. It was at last settled and arranged--in fact a notice to quit--the Queen being the prime mover and prompter of Sir Robert Walpole, who, of course, acted for the King in the matter. Concerning the final interview between the King and the Minister, the Queen had stipulated that she should have the last word with Sir Robert before he went in to the King, so it may be taken for granted that the terms of the message to be sent to the Prince were practically her terms.