rticular account of
this intrigue is to be seen in the Atalantis of Mrs. Manley, vol.
i., p. 30. The same writer, who had lived as companion to the
Duchess of Cleveland, says, in the account of her own life, that she
was an eye-witness when the duke, who had received thousands from
the duchess, refused the common civility of lending her twenty
guineas at basset.--The history of Rivella, 4th ed. 1725, p. 33.
Lord Chesterfield's character of this noblemen is too remarkable to
be omitted.

"Of all the men that ever I knew in my life, (and I knew him
extremely well,) the late Duke of Marlborough possessed the graces
in the highest degree, not to say engrossed them: and indeed he got
the most by them! for I will venture, (contrary to the custom of
profound historians, who always assign deep causes to great events,)
to ascribe the better half of the Duke of Marlborough's greatness
and riches to those graces. He was eminently illiterate, wrote bad
English, and spelled it still worse. He had no share of what is
commonly called parts; that is, he had no brightness, nothing
shining in his genius. He had, most undoubtedly, an excellent good
plain understanding, with sound judgment. But these alone would
probably have raised him but something higher than they found him,
which was page to King James II.'s queen. There the graces
protected and promoted him; for while he was an ensign of the
guards, the Duchess of Cleveland, then favourite mistress to King
Charles II., struck by those very graces, gave him five thousand
pounds; with which he immediately bought an annuity for his life, of
five hundred pounds a-year, of my grandfather, Halifax; which was
the foundation of his subsequent fortune. His figure was beautiful;
but his manner was irresistible by either man or woman. It was by
this engaging, graceful manner, that he was enabled, during all his
wars, to connect the various and jarring powers of the grand
alliance, and to carry them on to the main object of the war,
notwithstanding their private and separate views, jealousies, and
wrong-headednesses. Whatever court he went to, (and he was often
obliged to go himself to some restive and refractory ones,) he as
constantly prevailed, and brought them into his measures. The
pensionary Heinsius, a venerable old minister, grown grey in
business, and who had governed the repub