Assassination: ‘an Italian trick, not used in England’.

On Sunday 12 February 1682 three men were to be found sitting in the Black Bull, a tavern situated in Holborn. They were awaiting news of the movements of Thomas Thynne, the noted Whig MP and associate of the Duke of Monmouth. All three were foreigners, Captain Christopher Vratz, alias de Vallicks, a German soldier of fortune, Lieutenant John Stern, a forty-two-year old Swedish mercenary and Charles George Borsky, alias Boratzi, a not very bright Polish manservant. At around six in the evening news came to them that Thynne was out and about in his coach taking the air. On hearing this the three left the tavern and rode up the Strand in the direction of St James's heading for Pall Mall. Thomas Thynne had spent the afternoon talking with the Duke of Monmouth in his coach, and as the evening drew on he dropped the duke off at Hedge Lane, Thynne proposed to conclude his journey with a round of visits in the City. As the coach headed up St James's Street towards the Countess of Northumberland's house it was gloomy enough for the vehicle to need a ‘link man’ with a torch in front to guide the way. At which point the three men on horseback rode up. Stern moved in front of the coach, while Vratz and Borosky came up to the coach itself. Vratz shouted ‘Hold you dog!’ to the driver and as the latter turned, Borosky fired his weapon through the window of the carriage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]