Her recoveries were often as sudden as her decays,
insomuch that she would revive in a moment out of a wasting
distemper, into a habit of the highest health and vigour.
I had very soon an opportunity of observing these quick turns and
changes in her constitution. There sat at her feet a couple of
secretaries, who received every hour letters from all parts of the
world, which the one or the other of them was perpetually reading to
her; and according to the news she heard, to which she was
exceedingly attentive, she changed colour, and discovered many
symptoms of health or sickness.
Behind the throne was a prodigious heap of bags of money, which were
piled upon one another so high that they touched the ceiling. The
floor on her right hand and on her left was covered with vast sums
of gold that rose up in pyramids on either side of her. But this I
did not so much wonder at, when I heard, upon inquiry, that she had
the same virtue in her touch, which the poets tell us a Lydian king
was formerly possessed of; and that she could convert whatever she
pleased into that precious metal.
After a little dizziness, and confused hurry of thought, which a man
often meets with in a dream, methoughts the hall was alarmed, the
doors flew open, and there entered half a dozen of the most hideous
phantoms that I had ever seen, even in a dream, before that time.
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