had a defined scheme of policy, independent of that
private and selfish interest which each was bent on pursuing: St.
John was for St. John, and Harley for Oxford, and Marlborough for
John Churchill, always; and according as they could get help from
St. Germains or Hanover, they sent over proffers of allegiance to
the Princes there, or betrayed one to the other: one cause, or one
sovereign, was as good as another to them, so that they could hold the
best place under him; and like Lockit and Peachem, the Newgate chiefs
in the "Rogues' Opera," Mr. Gay wrote afterwards, had each in his hand
documents and proofs of treason which would hang the other, only he did
not dare to use the weapon, for fear of that one which his neighbor
also carried in his pocket. Think of the great Marlborough, the greatest
subject in all the world, a conqueror of princes, that had marched
victorious over Germany, Flanders, and France, that had given the law to
sovereigns abroad, and been worshipped as a divinity at home, forced to
sneak out of England--his credit, honors, places, all taken from him;
his friends in the army broke and ruined; and flying before Harley, as
abject and powerless as a poor debtor before a bailiff with a writ. A
paper, of which Harley got possession, and showing beyond doubt that the
Duke was engaged with the Stuart family, was the weapon with which the
Treasurer drove Marlborough out of the kingdom. He fled to Antwerp, and
began intriguing instantly on the other side, and came back to England,
as all know, a Whig and a Hanoverian.

Though the Treasurer turned out of the army and office every man,
military or civil, known to be the Duke's friend, and gave the vacant
posts among the Tory party; he, too, was playing the double game between
Hanover and St. Germains, awaiting the expected catastrophe of the
Queen's death to be Master of the State, and offer it to either family
that should bribe him best, or that the nation should declare for.
Whichever the King was, Harley's object was to reign over him; and to
this end he supplanted the former famous favorite, decried the actions
of the war which had made Marlborough's name illustrious, and disdained
no more than the great fallen competitor of his, the meanest arts,
flatteries, intimidations, that would secure his power. If the greatest
satirist the world ever hath seen had writ against Harley, and not for
him, what a history had he left behind of the last years of Queen Ann