ht not to be charged upon
any person whatsoever, upon slight grounds or doubtful surmises; and
that those who think I am able to produce no better, will judge this
passage to be fitter for a libel than a history; but as the account was
given by more than one person who was at the meeting, so it was
confirmed past all contradiction by several intercepted letters and
papers: and it is most certain, that the rage of the defeated party,
upon their frequent disappointments, was so far inflamed, as to make
them capable of some counsels yet more violent and desperate than this,
which, however, by the vigilance of those near the person of Her
Majesty, were happily prevented.

On the thirtieth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eleven,
the Duke of Marlborough was removed from all his employments: the Duke
of Ormonde succeeding him as general, both here and in Flanders. This
proceeding of the court (as far as it related to the Duke of
Marlborough) was much censured both at home and abroad, and by some who
did not wish ill to the present situation of affairs. There were few
examples of a commander being disgraced, after an uninterrupted course
of success for many years against a formidable enemy, and this before a
period was put to the war: those who had least esteem for his valour and
conduct, thought it not prudent to remove a general, whose troops were
perpetually victorious, while he was at their head; because this had
infused into his soldiers an opinion that they should always conquer,
and into the enemy that they should always be beaten; than which,
nothing is to be held of greater moment, either in the progress of a
war, or upon the day of battle; and I have good grounds to affirm, that
these reasons had sufficient weight with the Queen and ministry to have
kept the Duke of Marlborough in his post, if a way could have been found
out to have done it with any assurance of safety to the nation. It is
the misfortune of princes, that the effects of their displeasure make
usually much more noise than the causes: thus, the sound of the Duke's
fall was heard farther than many of the reasons which made it necessary;
whereof, though some were visible enough, yet others lay more in the
dark. Upon the Duke's last return from Flanders, he had fixed his
arrival to town (whether by accident or otherwise) upon the seventeenth
of November, called Queen Elizabeth's day, when great numbers of his
creatures and admirers had thoug