th his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and
Mazarine, etc., a French boy singing love songs in that glorious
gallery, whilst about twenty of the greate courtiers and other dissolute
persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least two
thousand in gold before them, upon which two gentlemen who were with me
made reflexions with astonishment. Six days after was all in the dust."

For now the end of all things had come for Charles Stuart. It happened
on the morning of the 2nd of February, 1685, the day being Monday, the
king whilst in his bedroom was seized by an apoplectic fit, when crying
out, he fell back in his chair, and lay as one dead. Wildly alarmed, his
attendants summoned Dr. King, the physician in waiting, who immediately
bled him, and had him carried to bed. Then tidings spread throughout the
palace, that his majesty hovered betwixt life and death; which should
claim him no man might say. Whereon the Duke of York hastened to his
bedside, as did likewise the queen, her face blanched, her eyes wild
with terror. His majesty after some time recovering consciousness,
slowly realized his sad condition. Then he conceived a fear, the
stronger as begotten by conviction, that the sands of his life had run
their course. Throughout that day and the next he fainted frequently,
and showed symptoms of epilepsy. On Wednesday he was cupped and bled
in both jugulars; but on Thursday he was pronounced better, when the
physicians, anxious to welcome hope, spoke of his probable recovery.

But, alas, the same evening he grew restless, and signs of fever became
apparent. Jesuits' powders, then of great repute, were given him, but
with no good result. Complaining of a pain in his side, the doctors drew
twelve ounces more of blood from him. Exhaustion then set in; all hope
of life was over.

Meanwhile, the capital was in a state of consternation. Prayers for his
majesty's recovery were offered up in all churches throughout the city;
likewise in the royal chapels, where the clergy relieved each other
every quarter of an hour. Crowds gathered by day and night without the
palace gates, eager to learn the latest change in the king's condition
from those who passed to and fro. Inside Whitehall all was confusion.
Members of the Privy Council assembled in the room adjoining that where
the monarch lay; politicians and ambassadors conversed in whispers in
the disordered apartments; courtiers of all degrees flocked through the
c