Note 78 — ODE To the River Darwent.

Mr Maddison was secretary to the English Ambassador at the French Court, about the end of the American war: his death was rather singular; the ambassador had been invited to a large dinner party, given by some of the members of the French Government; but being rather ill at the time, he sent his secretary as his deputy, who went accordingly, and came home extremely ill, and soon after died, with all the symptoms of being poisoned; a mark of favour which the French had intended to have paid to the ambassador, had not fortune forbid it! The circumstances of this curious affair, which made considerable noise at the time, were never rightly known.