the
peculiar talents and vices which were destined later to immortalise as
well as disgrace Mirabeau.

[43] He was only created Viscount Bolingbroke in 1712, but we give
him the name by which he is best known in history.

Uniting their talents and their rancour against the imperious and
uncompromising woman who had compassed their disgrace, Harley and
Bolingbroke, in their turn, had set about overthrowing the sway of the
Duchess. They craftily endeavoured to undermine, therefore, that
friendship which constituted her strength, and sought for a rival who
might supplant her in the Queen's heart. There was then at court a young
lady named Abigail Hill, the daughter of a bankrupt merchant of London,
who, when in poverty, had been taken by the hand by the Duchess of
Marlborough, to whom she was cousin, and through her influence appointed
bedchamber-woman to the Queen. By a singular chance, Abigail Hill was
also a cousin of Harley, who during his administration married her to
Masham, a dangling official of the royal household, who had been
indebted for his post rather to his birth and connections than any
personal merit.

Up to the period of Marlborough's brilliant victory of Ramilies (May,
1706), the influence of the Duchess over the mind of her sovereign was
not visibly lessened by her own indiscretion, or by the arts of her
opponents. From the moment of Anne's accession, she had flung herself
with ardour into politics. To dominate was her favourite passion. And
she imagined that she could decide affairs of State as easily as she
directed a petty intrigue, or suppressed a squabble within the interior
of the royal household. Instead of using the absolute sway she had over
the Queen with tact and moderation, she exercised it with an imprudent
audacity. Her party predilections were diametrically opposed to those of
Anne, who was sincerely attached to the principles of the Tories, and
who ardently desired to bring them into power. The Duchess did not allow
her a moment's repose until she had, by concession after concession,
surrounded herself by the chiefs of the Whig party, whom she at heart
detested. Hence an endless succession of piques, misunderstandings, and
jars between the royal Lady and her imperious Mistress of the Robes. The
glory and the important services of the Duke had, however, long deferred
the explosion of these secret resentments; but it was when Harley found
it impossible by any means to establish