ten. Matters even went so
far, that it was seriously proposed to draft fifteen thousand men from
Flanders to reinforce the armies in Spain, although it might easily be
foreseen that the only effect of this would be to drive the Dutch to a
separate peace, and lose the whole of Brabant, wrested at such an
expense of blood and treasure from the French arms. The Session of
Parliament was one incessant scene of vehement contention; but at length
the secret league of Harley with Mrs Masham and the Tories became so
apparent, that all his colleagues refused to attend a cabinet council to
which he was summoned, and he was obliged to retire. This decisive step
restored confidence between Marlborough and the Whigs, and for a time
re-established his influence in the government; but Mrs Masham's sway
over the Queen was not so easily subverted, and, in the end, proved
fatal both to his fortune and the career of glory he had opened to his
country.

Desirous of retaliating upon England the insult which the Allied armies
had inflicted upon France by the invasion of Provence, Louis XIV. now
made serious preparations for the invasion of Great Britain, with the
avowed object of re-establishing the Chevalier of St George, the heir of
James II., on the throne from which that unhappy monarch had been
expelled. Under Marlborough's able direction, to whom, as
commander-in-chief, the defensive measures were entrusted, every thing
was soon put in a train to avert the threatened danger. Scotland was the
scene where an outbreak was to be apprehended, and all the disposable
forces of the empire, including ten battalions brought over from
Flanders, were quickly sent to that country. The _habeas corpus_ act was
suspended. Edinburgh Castle was strongly garrisoned, and the British
squadron so skilfully disposed in the North Seas, that when the
Chevalier with a French squadron put to sea, he was so closely watched,
that after vainly attempting to land, both in the Firth of Forth and the
neighbourhood of Inverness, he was obliged to return to Dunkirk. This
auspicious event entirely restored Marlborough's credit with the nation,
and dispelled every remnant of suspicion with which the Whigs regarded
him in relation to the exiled family; and though his influence with the
court was secretly undermined, his power, to outward appearance, was
unbounded; and he resumed the command of the army in the beginning of
April 1708, with authority as paramount as he had e