present, but I expect nothing from the air--this certainly must be
unwholesome. I purpose staying here a fortnight and longer if benefitted."
After writing this, a relapse brought him "very near my last gasp. The
indisposition ... increased upon me, and I fell into a very low and
dangerous state. I once thought the grim king would certainly master my
utmost efforts, and that I must sink, in spite of a noble struggle; but
thank God, I have now got the better of the disorder, and shall soon be
restored, I hope, to perfect health again."

During the Revolution, fortunately, he seems to have been wonderfully
exempt from illness, and not till his retirement to Mount Vernon did an
old enemy, the ague, reappear. In 1786 he said, in a letter, "I write to
you with a very aching head and disordered frame.... Saturday last, by an
imprudent act, I brought on an ague and fever on Sunday, which returned
with violence Tuesday and Thursday; and, if Dr. Craik's efforts are
ineffectual I shall have them again this day." His diary gives the
treatment: "Seized with an ague before 6 o'clock this morning after having
laboured under a fever all night--Sent for Dr. Craik who arrived just as
we were setting down to dinner; who, when he thought my fever sufficiently
abated gave me cathartick and directed the Bark to be applied in the
Morning. September 2. Kept close to the House to day, being my fit day in
course least any exposure might bring it on,--happily missed it September
14. At home all day repeating dozes of Bark of which I took 4 with an
interval of 2 hours between."

With 1787 a new foe appeared in the form of "a rheumatic complaint which
has followed me more than six months, is frequently so bad that it is
sometimes with difficulty I can raise my hand to my head or turn myself in
bed."