e's
reign! But Swift, that scorned all mankind, and himself not the least of
all, had this merit of a faithful partisan, that he loved those chiefs
who treated him well, and stuck by Harley bravely in his fall, as he
gallantly had supported him in his better fortune.

Incomparably more brilliant, more splendid, eloquent, accomplished than
his rival, the great St. John could be as selfish as Oxford was, and
could act the double part as skilfully as ambidextrous Churchill. He
whose talk was always of liberty, no more shrunk from using persecution
and the pillory against his opponents than if he had been at Lisbon and
Grand Inquisitor. This lofty patriot was on his knees at Hanover and St.
Germains too; notoriously of no religion, he toasted Church and Queen
as boldly as the stupid Sacheverel, whom he used and laughed at; and
to serve his turn, and to overthrow his enemy, he could intrigue, coax,
bully, wheedle, fawn on the Court favorite and creep up the back-stair
as silently as Oxford, who supplanted Marlborough, and whom he himself
supplanted. The crash of my Lord Oxford happened at this very time
whereat my history is now arrived. He was come to the very last days of
his power, and the agent whom he employed to overthrow the conqueror of
Blenheim, was now engaged to upset the conqueror's conqueror, and hand
over the staff of government to Bolingbroke, who had been panting to
hold it.

In expectation of the stroke that was now preparing, the Irish regiments
in the French service were all brought round about Boulogne in Picardy,
to pass over if need were with the Duke of Berwick; the soldiers of
France no longer, but subjects of James the Third of England and Ireland
King. The fidelity of the great mass of the Scots (though a most active,
resolute, and gallant Whig party, admirably and energetically ordered
and disciplined, was known to be in Scotland too) was notoriously
unshaken in their King. A very great body of Tory clergy, nobility, and
gentry, were public partisans of the exiled Prince; and the indifferents
might be counted on to cry King George or King James, according as
either should prevail. The Queen, especially in her latter days,
inclined towards her own family. The Prince was lying actually in
London, within a stone's cast of his sister's palace; the first Minister
toppling to his fall, and so tottering that the weakest push of
a woman's finger would send him down; and as for Bolingbroke, his
successor,