d toes." Clarendon, who, by the
way, was a partisan of the Duke's, gives a totally different account of
James's death. He says, "It was occasioned by an ague (after a short
indisposition by the gout) which, meeting many humours in a fat
unwieldy body of fifty-eight years old, in four or five fits carried
him out of the world. After whose death many scandalous and libellous
discourses were raised, without the least colour or ground; as appeared
upon the strictest and most malicious examination that could be made,
long after, in a time of licence, when nobody was afraid of offending
majesty, and when prosecuting the highest reproaches and contumelies
against the royal family was held very meritorious." Notwithstanding
this confident declaration, the world will hardly be persuaded that
there was not some truth in the rumours that were abroad. The inquiries
which were instituted were not strict, as he asserts, and all the
unconstitutional influence of the powerful favourite was exerted to
defeat them. In the celebrated accusations brought against Buckingham
by the Earl of Bristol, the poisoning of King James was placed last on
the list, and the pages of history bear evidence of the summary mode in
which they were, for the time, got rid of.

The man from whom Buckingham is said to have procured his poisons was
one Dr. Lamb, a conjuror and empiric, who, besides dealing in poisons,
pretended to be a fortune-teller. The popular fury, which broke with
comparative harmlessness against his patron, was directed against this
man, until he could not appear with safety in the streets of London.
His fate was melancholy. Walking one day in Cheapside, disguised, as he
thought, from all observers, he was recognized by some idle boys, who
began to hoot and pelt him with rubbish, calling out, "The poisoner!
the poisoner! Down with the wizard! down with him!" A mob very soon
collected, and the Doctor took to his heels and ran for his life. He
was pursued and seized in Wood Street, and from thence dragged by the
hair through the mire to St. Paul's Cross; the mob beating him with
sticks and stones, and calling out, "Kill the wizard! kill the
poisoner!"

Charles I, on hearing of the riot, rode from Whitehall to quell it; but
he arrived too late to save the victim. Every bone in his body was
broken, and he was quite dead. Charles was excessively indignant, and
fined the city six hundred pounds for its inability to deliver up the
ringleaders to