A ROYAL SCANDAL. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH WISHES TO FIGHT

New Zealand Herald, Volume XV, Issue 5173, 15 June 1878, Page 6

A ROYAL SCANDAL. THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH WISHES TO FIGHT

A DUEL. A Loni»on correspondent writes :—'• Your readers will doubtless hare learned by telegraph that the Duke of Edinburgh's ship has been ordered to leave Malta. People nave been asking why. Well, here is the answer. The Duke's equerry paid some indiscreet attention to the wife of the adjutant at at Malta. The adjutant became annoyed, and challenged the equerry. The equerry refused to fight, whereupon the adjutant horsewhipped him. Immediately the Duke sent to the adjutant to say that the equerry had acted under hi 3 instructions, and that he (the Duke) was willing to take up the challenge. The adjutant declined to fight His Royal Highness, saying that he had horsewhipped his man, and was content. But the adjutant was then tried by court-martial for beating an officer whilst on duty and in uniform. The Court decided that the adjutant, under the circumstances of the case, had acted in *he only way an officer and a gentleman should have acted. The Duke immediately brought pressure to bear upon the members of the Court to induce them to qualify, at least, their decision. And the Court on hearing that the Duke was mixed up in the matter, added a rider to the decision arrived at, expressing regret that the adjutant should have allowed his feelings to get the better of his discretion. The adjutant vigorously protested against this addition, and demanded that the decision should stand in its original form. But the amended judgment, with the adjutant's protest, was sent to the Duke of Cambridge, who properly asked that the expression ot " regret," added to the decision, shuuld be struck out, and that the judgment should remain in its original form. A few days later it was announced that the Duke's flhip was ordered home to have " her boilers seen to." An English paper throws the following additional light upon this royal scandal :— Lieuten,uit Scott Stevenson, stationed at Malta, has a beautiful young wife. H. R. H. has, or had, an equerry named Monson, who is a married mau. It pleased Mr. Mouson to pay a somewhat lawless suit to Mrs. Scott Stevenson. It pleased her and her husband —especially the husband— to resent this. It further pleased H. R. H. to espouse the cause of his equerry. For twelve months Mr. Monson hud siege, in writing to the— heart—of beautiful Mrs. Scott Stevenson, and then came the inevitable expose. Before I go any further let me say that on all hands it is admitted that the lady's conduct in the affair was that of a strictly virtuous, if attention loving wife. She flirted innocently ; he (Mr. Mouson) did not. At least the outraged husband thought he did not, and, in consequence, he lost no time in his endeavours to procure redress. A challenge was duly forwarded by the injured husband to the gay Lothario and courteously declined. Whereupon a second challenge followed with fine promptitude. Eventually, owing to the interference of the Duke of Edinburgh, it was arranged on board the Sultan that Mr. Mouson should resign the ollice of equerry and retire from the island. On the day following, when Lieutenant Stevenson handed in his written acquiescence to this arrangement, the Duke of Edinburgh sent him a challenge to fight a public duel, with a complement of four seconds and an adequate number of witnesses and doctors, His Royal Highness to arrange details. Note a sentence or two in Lieutenant Stevenson's manly reply to this remarkable cartel: —l regret being unable to comply with your demands. * * * Should your Royal Highness, in spite of what you know with regard to the character of Mr. Monson, still consider him worthy of holding a place in your court, you must not blame me if I call upon public opinion to decide upon the merits of the case. * * * I need not point out to your Royal Highness that your equerry is a man of the world, nearly fifty years old, while my wife is. a comparative child. I assure you, sir, were it not for causing public annoyance to you and the Duchess, I would have before now chastised him in the manner which is suited to men of his stamp. In his reply to this the Duke demanded the acceptauce of the previous challeuge. In the course of the rejoinder, Lieutenant Stevenson said : —Your letter has most deeply distressed me. Your Royal Highness seems to forget the fearful injury which, in the sight of God and man, your equerry has attempted to do me. * * * I gave him his choice. He took it, and must abide by it. When your equerry has left Malta, if your Royal Highness is still of the same opinion, aud if I can reconcile it with my conscience, and my duty thus to meet the Bon of my Sovereign, 1 shall then do so, only stipulating yomr Royal Highness will send me a clear explanation of why you have interfered in this affair, which Mr. Mouson, a man of honor, was bound never to have allowed out of his own hands. • * * With your Royal Highness I have no quarrel, and to save my life could do you no injury. Thereupon the Duke withdrew from the affair, aud a document was prepared and signed by all the parties to the business. Therein Mr. Monson placed his resignation in the hands of the Duke, and undertook to leave the island conditionally on the affair being kept secret. Subsequently a Mrs. Lloyd entered upon the scene and wrote to Mrs. Monson declaring that Mrs. Stevenson had made a confidante of her. This, without inquiry, the Duke regarded as a breach of the contract and a subsequent removal of the ban of expatriation in respect of Mr. aud Mrs. Monson. They therefore returned to the island, and Mr. Monson was horsewhipped by Lieutenant Stevenson. A Court of Inquiry was thereupon held, Lieutenant Stevenson was held to have been fully justified in administering physical chastisement to the "indiscreet" equerry. I hope the affair will be thoroughly canvassed in the House of Commons.