as Lord Hervey's constitution, it was his lot to witness the
death-bed of the queen, for whose amusement he had penned the jeu
d'esprit just quoted, in which there was, perhaps, as much truth as wit.

The wretched Queen Caroline had, during fourteen years, concealed from
every one, except Lady Sundon, an incurable disorder, that of hernia. In
November (1737) she was attacked with what we should now call English
cholera. Dr. Tessier, her house-physician, was called in, and gave her
Daffey's elixir, which was not likely to afford any relief to the
deep-seated cause of her sufferings. She held a drawing-room that night
for the last time, and played at cards, even cheerfully. At length she
whispered to Lord Hervey, 'I am not able to entertain people.' 'For
heaven's sake, madam,' was the reply, 'go to your room: would to heaven
the king would leave off talking of the Dragon of Wantley, and release
you!' The Dragon of Wantley was a burlesque on the Italian opera, by
Henry Carey, and was the theme of the fashionable world.

The next day the queen was in fearful agony, very hot, and willing to
take anything proposed. Still she did not, even to Lord Hervey, avow the
real cause of her illness. None of the most learned court physicians,
neither Mead nor Wilmot, were called in. Lord Hervey sat by the queen's
bed-side, and tried to soothe her, whilst the Princess Caroline joined in
begging him to give her mother something to relieve her agony. At
length, in utter ignorance of the case, it was proposed to give her some
snakeroot, a stimulant, and, at the same time, Sir Walter Raleigh's
cordial; so singular was it thus to find that great mind still
influencing a court. It was that very medicine which was administered by
Queen Anne of Denmark, however, to Prince Henry; that medicine which
Raleigh said, 'would cure him, or any other, of a disease, except in
case of poison.'

However, Ranby, house-surgeon to the king, and a favourite of Lord
Hervey's, assuring him that a cordial with this name or that name was
mere quackery, some usquebaugh was given instead, but was rejected by
the queen soon afterwards. At last Raleigh's cordial was administered,
but also rejected about an hour afterwards. Her fever, after taking
Raleigh's cordial, was so much increased, that she was ordered instantly
to be bled.

Then, even, the queen never disclosed the fact that could alone dictate
the course to be pursued. George II., with more feeling than judg