There can be little doubt that this is what actually took place. Ferguson, indeed, represents it as a mere accident for which Fletcher was not to blame. ‘The death of Dare was caused,’ he says, ‘by his own intemperate and unruly passion, and beyond the intention of the gentleman whose misfortune it was to do it; who, having snatched his pistol into his hand for no other end but to preserve himself from the other’s rude assault with a cane, had the unhappiness, unawares, to shoot him, contrary to his thoughts and inclinations, and to his inconceivable grief.’ But Burnet, who probably heard the story from Fletcher himself, says nothing about any accident, and his account is corroborated by the evidence which Buyse afterwards gave at Edinburgh, which will be found in the eleventh volume of the State Trials. Fletcher went and told Monmouth what had happened; and, while they were speaking, the country people, headed by Dare’s son, appeared, demanding that justice should be done. Monmouth instantly saw that it would be impossible to retain Fletcher in his service, and advised him to make haste on board the frigate, and at the same time he sent orders to the master to sail. Ferguson says that Monmouth advised Fletcher to withdraw for a time, ‘to prevent murmuring among some of ourselves, as well as to remove occasion of resentment in the inhabitants of Taunton.’ But he says that he only told Fletcher to go ‘under a desire and command to return and meet him at a place which he named, but where, alas! we never had the happiness to arrive.’