us general to his duty as a subject. His sagacity was only
equalled by his prudence and patience, and these contributed, as well
as his personal bravery, to his splendid successes, which secured for
him magnificent rewards--palaces and parks, peerages, and a nation's
gratitude and praise.

But there is a limit to all human glory. Marlborough was undermined by
his political enemies, and he himself lost the confidence of the queen
whom he had served, partly by his own imperious conduct, and partly
from the overbearing insolence of his wife. From the height of popular
favor, he descended to the depth of popular hatred. He was held up, by
the sarcasm of the writers whom he despised, to derision and obloquy;
was accused of insolence, cruelty, ambition, extortion, and avarice,
discharged from his high offices, and obliged to seek safety by exile.
He never regained the confidence of the nation, although, when he
died, parliament decreed him a splendid funeral, and a grave in
Westminster Abbey.

[Sidenote: Character of Marlborough.]

In private life, he was amiable and kind; was patient under
contradiction, and placid in manners; had great self-possession, and
extraordinary dignity. His person was beautiful, and his address
commanding. He was feared as a general, but loved as a man. He never
lost his affections for his home, and loved to idolatry his imperious
wife, his equal, if not superior, in the knowledge of human nature.
These qualities as a man, a general, and a statesman, in spite of his
defects, have immortalized his name, and he will, for a long time to
come, be called, and called with justice, the _great_ Duke of
Marlborough.

Scarcely less than he, was Lord Godolphin, the able prime minister of
Anne, with whom Marlborough was united by family ties, by friendship,
by official relations, and by interest. He was a Tory by profession,
but a Whig in his policy. He rose with Marlborough, and fell with him,
being an unflinching advocate for the prosecution of the war to the
utmost limits, for which his government was distasteful to the Tories.
His life was not stainless; but, in an age of corruption, he ably
administered the treasury department, and had control of unbounded
wealth, without becoming rich--the highest praise which can ever be
awarded to a minister of finance. It was only through the cooeperation
of this sagacious and far-sighted statesman that Marlborough himself
was enabled to prosecute his brilliant m