after removed, all parties having a like interest in the trade of the nation. The king was greatly bent on this design, but he had just now met with an accident which prevented him going to the house of lords to propose it. But he sent a message both to the lords and to the commons, expressing his earnest desire that a union should take place, and that commissioners were already appointed in Scotland to treat with such commissioners as should be appointed in England for that end. He represented that he was fully satisfied that nothing could more contribute to the security and happiness of the two kingdoms than such a union, and that he should esteem it a peculiar felicity if, during his reign, so great an event should take place.
But the accident alluded to was of a more serious nature than was suspected, and, falling on a weak and exhausted frame, was about to bring his reign to an abrupt close. In riding towards Hampton Court on the 21st of February, on his accustomed Saturday's excursion to hunt there, his horse fell with him and fractured his collar-bone, besides doing him other serious injury. He was carried to Hampton Court, where the bone was set; and though the surgeon remarked that his pulse was feverish, he was deemed in too feeble a condition to admit of benefit by bleeding. Contrary, moreover, to the advice of his medical attendants, he would insist on returning that same evening to Kensington, and was, accordingly, conveyed thither in a carriage; but, on arriving, it was found that the collar-bone, by the jolting of the carriage, was again displaced. It was again set, and the king slept well the night through after it. For several days no bad consequences appeared; but on the 1st of March a great pain and weakness was felt in his knee. Ronjat, his surgeon, a Frenchman, who had reset the bone, had contended that he ought to have been bled; Bidloo, his Dutch physician, had opposed it as injurious in his debilitated state. He was now attended by Sir Thomas Millington, Sir Richard Blackmore, Sir Theodore Colledon, Dr. Bidloo, and other eminent physicians. Again he appeared to rally, and on the 4th of March he took several turns in the gallery at Kensington; but, sitting down on a couch, he fell asleep, and awoke shivering and in high fever. On this there was a hurry to pass several bills through the lords that they might receive his signature, in case of fatal termination of his illness. These were the malt-tax bill, the bill for the prince of Wales's attainder, and one in favour of the quakers, making their affirmation valid instead of an oath. These being prepared, and the king not being able to use his hand, the royal signature was affixed by a stamp made for the purpose.
This took place on the 7th of March, and was not a moment too soon, for the king's symptoms rapidly gained strength, and he died the next day. The earl of Albemarle, his great favourite, arrived from Holland on the day preceding his death, and it was thought the good news which he brought would cheer him, but William appeared to receive his information with indifference, and merely replied, "Je tire vers ma fin"—"I approach my end." The news of the king's danger filled the antechamber with such a throng of courtiers as is generally witnessed at the expected moment of a monarch's decease; not prompted by affection, but on the watch for seizing the earliest moment to make their court to his successor. Physicians, statesmen, and emissaries of interested parties were there mingled, eagerly listening for the reports of his state, and ready to fly with the news of his decease. Amongst these were the messengers of the princess Anne and of Lady Marlborough, who, with her husband, now absent with the army in Holland, had scarcely less to expect from the event. Yet even lady Marlborough, assuredly by no means sensitive where her ambition was concerned, expresses her disgust at the scene. "When the king came to die, I felt nothing of the satisfaction which I once thought I should have had on this occasion; and my lord and lady Jersey's writing and sending perpetually to give an account (to the princess Anne) as his breath grew shorter and shorter, filled me with horror." These Jerseys, who were thus courting the favour of the heiress to the crown by these incessant messages of the advancing death of the king, had been amongst those on whom he had heaped favours and benefits pre-eminently. Such is the end of princes. The closing scene is thus detailed by bishop Burnet, who, to the last, showed himself one of the steadiest and most grateful of his courtiers. "The king's strength and pulse were still sinking as the difficulty of breathing increased, so that no hope was left. The archbishop of Canterbury and I went to him on Saturday morning, and did not stir from him till he died. The archbishop prayed on Saturday some time with him, but he was then so weak that he could scarce speak, but gave him his hand, as a sign that he firmly believed the truth of the Christian religion, and said he intended to receive the sacrament. His reason and all his senses were entire to the last minute. About five in the morning he desired the sacrament, and went through the office with great appearance of seriousness, but could not express himself; when this was done, ho called for the earl of Albemarle, and gave him a charge to take care of his papers. He thanked M. Auverquerque for his long and faithful services. He took leave of the duke of Ormond, and called for the earl of Portland, but before he came his voice quite faded; so he took him by the hand and carried it to his heart with great tenderness. He was often looking up to heaven in many short ejaculations. Between seven and eight o'clock the rattle began; the commendatory prayer was said to him, and as it ended he died, on Sunday the 8th of March, in the fifty-second year of his age, having reigned thirteen years and a few days."
It was found on opening the body that he had had an adhesion of the lungs, which being torn from the side to which it had adhered by the fall from his horse, was the cause of his death. His head and heart were sound, but he had scarcely any blood in his body.
In person William was of a spare frame, of middle stature, and of a delicate constitution, being subject to an asthma and cough from his childhood, supposed to be the consequences of smallpox. He had an aquiline nose, clear, bright eyes, a finely developed forehead, a grave aspect, and was very taciturn, except amongst his own immediate friends, who were almost all his own countrymen. His reserved and repellant manner gave great offence to his English courtiers and nobles, and the lavish wealth which he heaped on his favourite Dutchmen, heightened this feeling. He never liked Englishmen, and they never liked him. For his
