ll, and so
tottering that the weakest push of a woman's finger would send him down;
and as for Bolingbroke, his successor, we know on whose side his power and
his splendid eloquence would be on the day when the queen should appear
openly before her council and say:--"This, my lords, is my brother; here is
my father's heir, and mine after me."

During the whole of the previous year the queen had had many and repeated
fits of sickness, fever, and lethargy, and her death had been constantly
looked for by all her attendants. The Elector of Hanover had wished to
send his son, the Duke of Cambridge--to pay his court to his cousin the
queen, the Elector said;--in truth, to be on the spot when death should
close her career. Frightened perhaps to have such a _memento mori_ under
her royal eyes, her Majesty had angrily forbidden the young prince's
coming into England. Either she desired to keep the chances for her
brother open yet; or the people about her did not wish to close with the
Whig candidate till they could make terms with him. The quarrels of her
ministers before her face at the Council board, the pricks of conscience
very likely, the importunities of her ministers, and constant turmoil and
agitation round about her, had weakened and irritated the princess
extremely; her strength was giving way under these continual trials of her
temper, and from day to day it was expected she must come to a speedy end
of them. Just before Viscount Castlewood and his companion came from
France, her Majesty was taken ill. The St. Anthony's fire broke out on the
royal legs; there was no hurry for the presentation of the young lord at
Court, or that person who should appear under his name; and my lord
viscount's wound breaking out opportunely, he was kept conveniently in his
chamber until such time as his physician should allow him to bend his knee
before the queen. At the commencement of July, that influential lady, with
whom it has been mentioned that our party had relations, came frequently
to visit her young friend, the maid of honour, at Kensington, and my lord
viscount (the real or supposititious), who was an invalid at Lady
Castlewood's house.

On the 27th day of July, the lady in question, who held the most intimate
post about the queen, came in her chair from the palace hard by, bringing
to the little party in Kensington Square, intelligence of the very highest
importance. The final blow had been struck, and my Lord of Oxford and