FROM CHARLES FORD, ESQ.
THREE IN THE AFTERNOON.
I DO not doubt but you have heard the queen is dead, and perhaps we may be so unfortunate before this comes to you; but at present she is alive, and much better than could have been expected. I am just come from Kensington, where I have almost spent these two whole days. I am in great haste; but, till dinner comes up, I will write to you, and give you as full an account as I can of her illness.
Her disorder began between eight and nine yesterday morning. The doctors ordered her head to be shaved; and while it was doing, she fell into a fit of convulsion, or as they thought an apoplexy. This lasted near two hours, and she was speechless, and showed little sign of life during that time; but came to herself upon being blooded.
As soon as she recovered, my lord Bolingbroke went to her, and told her the privy council was of opinion, it would be for the publick service to have the duke of Shrewsbury made lord treasurer. She immediately consented, and gave the staff into the duke's hands. The great seal was put to the patent by four o'clock. She continued ill the whole day. In the evening I spoke to Dr. Arbuthnot, and he told me, he did not think her distemper was desperate. Radcliffe was sent for to Carshalton about noon, by order of council; but said he had taken physick, and could not come. In all probability he had saved her life; for I am told the late lord Gower had been
