70

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

cttap. continental politics, and remembering with bitterness thexxv.

i7oi, disasters and burdens of the last war, the carnage ofLanden, the loss of the Smyrna fleet, the land tax at fourshillings in the pound, hesitated about engaging in anothercontest, and would probably continue to hesitate while hecontinued to live. He could not live long. It had, indeed,often been prophesied that his death was at hand; and theprophets had hitherto been mistaken. But there was nowno possibility of mistake. Ilis cough was more violentthan ever; his legs were swollen; his eyes, onee bright andclear as those of a falcon, had grown dim; he who, outlieday of the Boyne, had been sixteen hours on the backs ofdifferent horses, could now with great difficulty creep intohis state coach.® The vigorous intellect, and the intrepidspirit, remained; but on the body fifty years had done thework of ninety. In a few months the vaults of West-minster would receive the emaciated and shattered framewhich was animated by the most far-sighted, the mostdaring, the most commanding of souls. In a few monthsthe British throne would be filled by a woman whose under-standing was well known to be feeble, and who was be-lieved to lean towards the party which was averse fromwar. To get over those few months without an open andviolent rupture should have been the first object of the

* Poussin to Torcy, - ;, nl 1701. “Lc roi d’Angletcrro tousso

May 8.

plus qu’il n’a jamais fait, et ses jambes sont fort enfles. Je lo vis liiersortir du prdeke de Saint James. Je Ie trouve fort cassd, Ies yensdteints, ct il cut beaucoup de peine h, montcr en carrosse.”