Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/297

Rh notice of it, imagining his grace would make ſome excuſe to him for ſuch a procedure; but whether the duke thought it beneath his quality to make any apology for beating a menial ſervant, who had been rude to him, or would not do it upon another account, he ſpoke not a word about it. The marquis reſenting this behaviour, two days after ordered the duke to priſon. He obeyed, and went to Fort Montjuich: as ſoon as he arrived there, the marquis ſent him word, he might come out when he pleaſed; the duke anſwered, he ſcorned to accept liberty at his hands, and would not ſtir without an order from the court, imagining they would highly condemn the governour’s conduct; but the marquis had too much credit with the miniſter, to ſuffer any diminution of his power on that account; he received only a ſharp rebuke, and the duke had orders to repair to his quarters, without entering again into Barcelona. This laſt mortification renewed the remembrance of all his misfortunes; he ſunk beneath this accident, and giving way to melancholy, fell into a deep conſumption. Had the duke maintained his uſual ſpirit, he would probably have challenged the marquis, and revenged the affront of the ſervant upon the matter, who had made the quarrel his own, by reſenting the valet’s deſerved correction.

About the beginning of the year 1731 he declined ſo faſt, being in his quarters, at Lerida, that he had not the uſe of his limbs, ſo as to move without aſſiſtance; but as he was free from pain, he did not loſe all his gaiety. He continued in this ill ſtate of health for two months, when he gained a little ſtrength, and found ſome benefit from a certain mineral water in the mountains of Catalonia; but his conſtitution was too much ſpent to recover the ſhocks it had received. He relapſed the May following at Terragana,