Low were the whispers, manifold the rumours:

Some said he had been poisoned by Potemkin;

Others talked learnedly of certain tumours,

Exhaustion, or disorders of the same kin;[544]Some said 't was a concoction of the humours,

Which with the blood too readily will claim kin:

Others again were ready to maintain,

"'T was only the fatigue of last campaign."