lland. Distinguished by his commanding stature and handsome
face, he was known to the French soldiery as the "handsome Englishman."
Turenne complimented him on his gallantry and "serene intrepidity"
before the allied armies. The Marshal had been attracted to him by his
courage, and is said to have laid a wager, which he won, on the subject
of Churchill's gallantry, on the occasion of a post of importance having
been abandoned by one of his own officers. "I will bet a supper and a
dozen of claret," said he, "that my handsome Englishman will recover the
post with half the number of men commanded by the officer who lost it."
The event justified the Marshal's opinion. Emboldened by the praise of
such a general, Churchill solicited but did not obtain the command of a
regiment from Louis XIV.,[39] the great King refusing his services, as
he declined those of Prince Eugene a few years later. He was esteemed
one of the handsomest and most attractive gentlemen of the day. Lord
Chesterfield, the _arbiter elegantiarum_, declared that the grace and
fascination of young Churchill was such, that he was "irresistible
either by man or woman."

[39] This curious fact was lately ascertained by M. Moret, through
the discovery of an inedited, but authentic document, in the
_Archives de la Guerre_ in Paris. It appears in a letter of Lord
Lockhart, the English Ambassador at Paris, who asks that the
colonelcy of a regiment might be given to Churchill. It is dated
27th of May, 1674.--_Archives de la Guerre_, vol. 411, No. 193.

On his return to London at the close of the war, the young soldier
became attached to the household of the Duke of York, and rose rapidly
in that witty, gallant, and corrupt Court, where shone the Grammonts,
Rochesters, and Hamiltons, and where Churchill sought the society of the
sultanas who shared with Charles the government of England. The handsome
Churchill became, for a short time, the object of the violent but fickle
fondness of the head sultana, the Duchess of Cleveland. On one occasion
the audacious gallant was very nearly caught in the frail beauty's
apartments by "old Rowley," and only escaped by leaping from the window
at the risk of his life. For this exploit the grateful Duchess presented
her daring lover with five thousand pounds. Churchill made no scruple of
receiving the money, so early had the sordid propensity for gain taken
hold of him, and with it he at once bought an annuity