Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/168

158 robe had made her ſign an inſtrument, that they ſhould receive the money and pay themſelves: After they had laid their cruel hands upon it, of the 200 l. the poor diſtreſſed lady received but 13 l. 16 s. which reduced her to the neceſſity of abſconding from her creditors, and ſtarving in an obſcure corner, till ſhe was betrayed by a falſe friend, and hurried to jail.

Beſides all the other calamities of Corinna, ſhe had ever a bad ſtate of health, occaſioned by an accident too curious to be omitted.

In the year 1730 her caſe was given into the college of phyſicians, and was reckoned a very ſurprizing one. It is as follows.

‘In April 1711 the patient ſwallowed the middle bone of the wing of a large fowl, being above three inches long; ſhe had the end in her mouth, and ſpeaking haſtily it went forcibly down in the act of inſpiration. After the firſt ſurprize, feeling no pain ſhe thought no more of it; in a few days after, ſhe complained what ſhe eat or drank lay like a ſtone in her ſtomach, and little or nothing paſs’d through her. After three weeks’ obſtruction, ſhe fell into a moſt violent bloody flux, attended with a continual pain at the pit of her ſtomach, convulſions, and ſwooning fits; nor had ſhe any eaſe but while her ſtomach was diſtended with liquids, ſuch as ſmall beer, or gruel: She continued in this miſery, with ſome little intervals, till the Chriſtmaſs following, when ſhe was ſeized with a malignant fever, and the convulſions encreaſed to ſo high a degree, that ſhe crowed like a cock, and barked like a dog, to the affrightment of all who ſaw her, as well as herſelf. Dr. Colebatch being called to her relief, and ſeeing the almoſt incredible quantity of blood ſhe voided, ſaid it was impoſſible ſhe could live, having voided all