On Monday the country was startled by hearing of a
sup- posed Fenian outrage on Lady Florence Dixie, sister of the Marquis of Queensberry, and author of books showing that she tie a courageous woman who is not afraid of danger. Walking near the grounds of the Fishery, the place of her husband, Sir Beaumont Dixie, two miles and a half from Windsor on the Maidenhead side, at about half-past four on Saturday last, she went through a gate into the grounds of their neighbour, Captain Brocklehurst, when she was followed by two very tall women, who at once pulled her down, one of them attempting to drive a long steel knife into her, which Lady Florence seized first with one hand and then with the other, so that it cut her gloves and her fingers. Two plunges of the knife were made, but each of them -came on the whalebone of her stays, and neither wounded her, though her dress was cut. One of the women forced mould into her mouth to stop her cries. The St. Bernard dog, "Hubert," coming to the rescue, and the sound of wheels being heard, the men de- ramped; and Lady Florence, who had half fainted, recovered, and got back to the house in much disorder and terror. Sir Beaumont and the servants attest her exhausted condition, and the signs of dirt on her face and month ; and Frederic Rowe, the butler of Colonel Raiford, of Down Place, states that on passing the Fishery about four o'clock, he was startled to see two very tall women appear suddenly in the road, he could not tell from where, as he had seen no trace of them before, though he had been constantly looking back to see that some dogs with him did not fight. He thought that they must have come out of the stable-gate of the Willows,—Captain Brockle- hurst's house, in the grounds of which Lady Florence was at the time of the alleged attack. This is as yet the only con- firmation of the story from outside, the police having inquired in vain for any trace of the men disguised as women in the neighbourhood, though Saturday being market-day at Windsor, the road was much frequented. To one correspondent, Lady Florence described the white, set teeth, fierce eyes, and terrible demeanour of her assailant in very hysteric language, con- sidering the infinitesimal amount of injury actually done. Of the blow on the head which Lady Florence felt, there is said to be now no trace.
