Excerpt from Lives of Eminent and Illustrious Englishmen, From Alfred the Great to the Latest Times, on an Original Plan, Vol. 3 Mr Pickering tells me the story is very true of a child being dropped at the ball at court; and that the king had it in his closet a week after, and did dissect it and making great sport of it, said that in his Opinion it must have been a month and three hours old; and that, whatever others think, he hath the greatest loss, (it being a boy, as he says, ) that hath lost a subject by the business. He told me also how loose the court is, nobody looking after business, but every man his lust and gain and how the king is now become besotted upon Mrs Stew art, that he gets into corners, and will be with her half an hour together kissing her to the observation of all the world; and she now stays by herself and expects it, as my Lady Castlemaine did use to do: to whom the king, he says, is still kind, &c. Coming to St James's, I hear that the queen did sleep five hours pretty well to-night. The king, they all say, is most fondly disconsolate for her, and weeps by her, which makes her weep; which one this day told me he reckons a good sign, for that it carries away some rheum from the head! She tells us that the queen's sickness is the spotted fever; that she was as full of the spots as a leopard: which is very strange that it should be no more known; but perhaps it is not so. And that the king do seem to take it much to heart, for that he hath wept before her; but, for all that, that he hath not missed one night since she was sick, of supping with my Lady Castlemaine; which I believe is true, for she says that her husband hath dressed the suppers every night; and I confess I saw him myself coming through the street dressing up a great supper to-night, which Sarah says is also for the king and her which is avery strange thing. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.