Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/345

Rh Christmas 1713. It was confidently reported in town, that she was dead; and the heads of the expecting party were said to have various meetings thereupon, and a great hurrying of chairs and coaches to and from the earl of Wharton's house. Whether this were true or not, yet thus much is certain, that the expressions of joy appeared very frequent and loud among many of that party; which proceeding, men of form did not allow to be altogether decent. A messenger was immediately dispatched, with an account of the queen's illness, to the treasurer; who was then in town, and in order to stop the report of her death, appeared next day abroad in his chariot with a pair of horses, and did not go down to Windsor till his usual time. Upon his arrival there, the danger was over, but not the fright, which still sat on every body's face; and the account given of the confusion and distraction the whole court had been under, is hardly to be conceived: upon which, the treasurer said to me, "Whenever any thing ails the queen these people are out of their wits; and yet they are so thoughtless, that as soon as she is well, they act as if she were immortal." I had sufficient reason, both before and since, to allow his observation to be true, and that some share of it might with justice be applied to himself.

The queen had early notice of this behaviour among the discontented leaders, during her illness. It was indeed, an affair of such a nature, as required no aggravation: which, however, would not have been wanting; the women of both parties who then attended her majesty, being well disposed to represent it in the strongest light. The. IV.