this, Anne rose to leave the room, but the Duchess
prevented her by placing her back against the door, and, during an hour,
exhausted herself by launching invectives against her sovereign. Having
sufficiently vented her rage, the angry woman ended by saying that
doubtless she should never see her again, but she cared very little
about that. "I think," calmly replied Anne, "the seldomer the better."
The Duchess at length quitted the room, but from that day the links of
their hitherto close friendship were rudely broken, their correspondence
interrupted, and the Queen gave her entire confidence to Mrs. Masham.

The subtle Abigail was ever on the watch to closely observe the frequent
disagreements between her Majesty and the Mistress of the Robes, and did
not fail to turn them to skilful account. When the storm had subsided,
and the Queen poured into her friendly ear confidential complaints of
the absent Duchess, Abigail's sympathy, acquiescence, and responsive
condolences, were ever ready, and effected their purpose. The
lady-dresser thus gradually wormed herself into the Queen's affections,
and as gradually undermined what remained of friendly feeling between
her powerful kinswoman and their royal mistress. Every one at court had
become aware of the influence of the new favourite before the Duchess
herself perceived it; but it was not in the power of the artful
relative, nor of her tool, the Queen, much longer to blind the woman
whom they had, with true vulgarity of mind, gloried in deceiving.[46]

[46] MSS. Brit. Mus., Coxe Papers, vol. xliv.

From the time of Mrs. Masham's admittance to close attendance on the
Queen, the Duchess seemed in a constant state of irritation and
annoyance. Her letters to Anne showed the mortification and vexation she
endured, and prove the petty and ungrateful conduct of the
bedchamber-woman, whose hold on the Queen's regard was sustained by a
thousand mean and paltry instances of treachery to her benefactress.
That Queen Anne, who had once been really attached to a woman like the
Duchess of Marlborough, could condescend to replace her by such a rival
is not a little surprising, and shows the true bent of her character to
have been such as to render her unworthy of the friendship of an honest
and high-minded woman. That the Duchess herself entered into details of
petty injuries, and descends to justify herself, cannot be wondered at;
for such subjects were forced upon her, and much as i