ntrigues, plots, apostacies, defections: doubt alone survived every
other political instinct of his heart. Faithful to the very brink of
misfortune, he ever adhered unswervingly until the dawning of the evil
days. Well aware how quickly dynasties expire in a country convulsed by
revolutions, he had learnt to anticipate approaching catastrophes, and
to secure to himself beforehand an _appui_ amongst the victorious
survivors. Whilst he was defending the cause of the House of Orange in
Europe, he corresponded secretly with the Stuarts, kept up assiduous
relations with the little Court of St. Germains, and made underhand
preparations for marrying one of his daughters with the Pretender, then
ex-King (James III.), at St. Germains, and, perhaps, on the morrow _de
facto_ King of England. But if Marlborough's soul was mean and sordid,
his genius was vast and powerful. In parliament, at St. James's, in
foreign councils, in foreign courts, on the field of battle, everywhere
he dominated men. His education had been so very much neglected that he
could scarcely write correctly his native English, and yet, when he rose
to speak in the House of Lords, the entire assembly hung upon his words,
and the most consummate orators, the heads of the British forum, were
envious of that natural eloquence which without effort went straight to
the heart; and he exercised that charm even upon his foes, to such a
degree that Bolingbroke once remarked to Voltaire, when speaking of him:
"He was such a great man that I have forgotten his vices."[41]

[41] Voltaire, Beuchot's edition, tom. xxxvii. Lettre xii., p. 172.

At the period of which we are now treating, Marlborough was the most
powerful personage in England: by his wife, the Queen's favourite, he
ruled the household; by the Whigs, become his friends, parliament and
the ministry; by his rank and his military popularity, the army; by
Prince Eugene, his comrade in arms, the councils of Austria; by his old
friend Heinsius, the States-General; by the weight of his name, his
conduct and address, the suppleness of his character, Prussia and the
princes of the Empire. It was he who raised their regiments, who
regulated their subventions, who appeased their quarrels. He was the
head and arm of the coalition. As potent as Cromwell, more of a king
than William III.; without affection or hatred, he justified the saying
of Machiavelli: "The universe belongs to the phlegmatic."

We will now revert to h