At this collation Whitelocke ate very little, and drank only one glass of Spanish wine, and one glass of small beer, which was given him by a stranger, whom he never saw before nor after, and the beer seemed at that instant to be of a very bad taste and colour; nor would he inquire what it was, his own servants being taken forth by the Resident's people in courtesy to entertain them.[371] After he came to his lodging he was taken very ill, and grew worse and worse, extreme sick, with pains like the strokes of daggers, which put him in mind of a former passage; and his torment was so great that it was scarcely to be endured, the most violent that he ever felt. He was not well after his journey from Luebeck to Hamburg, having been extremely jolted in the coach in that way full of holes and sloughs, made by their great carriages in time of the war, and not yet amended: his weariness when he came to Hamburg reprieved his pain, which highly increased this evening; and the last of his ill beer still remained with him. _June 14, 1654._ [SN: Whitelocke's indisposition.] The fierce torment continued on Whitelocke above thirteen hours together without intermission. About four o'clock this morning his secretary Earle was called to him, who waited on him with care and sadness to see his torment; nature helped, by vomits and otherwise, to give some ease, but the sharpness of his pain continued. About five o'clock this morning Dr. Whistler was called to him, who gave him several sorts of physic, and amongst the rest a drink with a powder and a great quantity of oil of sweet almonds, suspecting, by the manner of his sickness and some of the symptoms, that he might have had poison given him, which was the jealousy of most about him; and whether it were so or not the Lord only knows, who nevertheless in his goodness preserved Whitelocke, and blessed the means for his recovery. The drink working contrary to what was intended, and turning to a vomit, the doctor, perceiving the operation of nature to be that way, followed by giving of vomits, which within two hours gave some ease and brought him to a little slumber, and in a few hours after to recovery. Thus it pleased God to exercise him, and to cast him down for a little time; and when he had no expectation but of present death in a strange land, God was pleased suddenly, and above imagination, to restore and recover him; the which, and all other the mercies of God, he prays may, by him and his, be thankfully remembered.