to her to sip of it, which had like to have cost her her life; for
notwithstanding it flung her at first into freakish tricks, quite
contrary to her usual gravity, in less than a quarter of an hour she
fell into convulsions; and had it not been a creature more tenacious of
life than any other, would certainly have died under the operation.

I was so incensed by the tortures of my innocent domestic, and the
unworthy dealings of these men, that I told them, if each of them had as
many lives as the injured creature before them, they deserved to forfeit
them for the pernicious arts which they used for their profit. I
therefore bid them look upon themselves as no better than as a kind of
assassins and murderers within the law. However, since they had dealt so
clearly with me, and laid before me their whole practice, I dismissed
them for that time; with a particular request, that they would not
poison any of my friends and acquaintance, and take to some honest
livelihood without loss of time.

For my own part, I have resolved hereafter to be very careful in my
liquors, and have agreed with a friend of mine in the army, upon their
next march, to secure me two hogsheads of the best stomach-wine in the
cellars of Versailles, for the good of my Lucubrations, and the comfort
of my old age.

[Footnote 76: Eclog. iv. 29.]

[Footnote 77: See No. 138.]

[Footnote 78: A fashionable eating-house in Abchurch Lane, kept by one
Pontack, who was son of the President of Bordeaux, then owner, as Evelyn
tells us, of the excellent vineyards of Pontaq and Haut Brion.]

No. 132. [STEELE.

From _Thursday, Feb. 9_, to _Saturday, Feb. 11, 1709-10_.

Habeo senectuti magnam gratiam, quae mihi sermonis aviditatem auxit,
potionis et cibi sustulit.--CICERO, De Sen. 46.

* * * * *

_Sheer Lane, February 10._

After having applied my mind with more than ordinary attention to my
studies, it is my usual custom to relax and unbend it in the
conversation of such as are rather easy than shining companions. This I
find particularly necessary for me before I retire to rest, in order to
draw my slumbers upon me by degrees, and fall asleep insensibly. This is
the particular use I make of a set of heavy honest men, with whom I have
passed many hours, with much indolence, though not with great pleasure.
Their conversation is a kind of preparative for sl