cinating wrought sad havoc in the breast of
many a Court-lady; and, boy though he was, there were few favours which
might not have been his without the asking.

Even Barbara Villiers, my Lady Castlemaine, who had for many years been
the King's "light o' love," and had borne him three sons, all
Dukes-to-be, cast amorous eyes on the handsome young Guardsman; and,
what is more, succeeded where beauty failed, in drawing him within the
net of her coarse, middle-aged charms. Strange stories are told of the
love-making of this oddly-assorted pair, which had a ludicrous
conclusion. One day King Charles was informed that if he would take the
trouble to go to Lady Castlemaine's rooms he would be rewarded by a
singular spectacle--that of young Churchill dallying with his mistress
and the mother of his children. And so it proved; for when the King made
an unexpected appearance he was just in time to see the
lieutenant-Lothario disappearing through an open window and his
inamorata on the verge of hysterics on a sofa.

One cannot blame the "Merrie Monarch" for deciding that such activities
were better fitted for another field of exercise. The young Lothario was
packed off to Tangier to cool his ardour by a little bloodshed; but
before he went Lady Castlemaine handed him a farewell present of L5,000
with which, according to Lord Chesterfield, "he immediately bought an
annuity of L500 a year of my grandfather Halifax, which was the
foundation of his subsequent fortune."

A young man so enterprising and so gifted by nature could scarcely fail
to go far, when his energies were directed into a suitable channel. He
proved that he could serve under the banner of Mars as gallantly as
under the pennon of Cupid. He did such doughty deeds against the Dutch,
under Monmouth, that he was made a Captain of Grenadiers. At the siege
of Nimeguen his reckless bravery won the unstinted praise of Turenne,
who, when one of his own officers cowardly abandoned an important
outpost, exclaimed, "I will bet a supper and a dozen of claret that my
handsome Englishman will recover the post with half the number of men
that the officer commanded who has lost it." And the "handsome
Englishman" promptly won the supper for the Marshal. Moreover, by an act
of splendid daring, during the siege of Maestricht he saved the Duke of
Monmouth's life; and returned to England a hero and a colonel, having
thoroughly purged his indiscretion in Lady Castlemaine's boudoir. If he