nce. Which side she might take depended on the will of others.
For her understanding was sluggish; and, though there was latent in her
character a hereditary wilfulness and stubbornness which, many years
later, great power and great provocations developed, she was as yet a
willing slave to a nature far more vivacious and imperious than her
own. The person by whom she was absolutely governed was the wife of
Churchill, a woman who afterwards exercised a great influence on the
fate of England and of Europe.

The name of this celebrated favourite was Sarah Jennings. Her elder
sister, Frances, had been distinguished by beauty and levity even among
the crowd of beautiful faces and light characters which adorned and
disgraced Whitehall during the wild carnival of the Restoration. On one
occasion Frances dressed herself like an orange girl and cried fruit
about the streets. [271] Sober people predicted that a girl of so little
discretion and delicacy would not easily find a husband. She was however
twice married, and was now the wife of Tyrconnel. Baron, less regularly
beautiful, was perhaps more attractive. Her face was expressive: her
form wanted no feminine charm; and the profusion of her fine hair, not
yet disguised by powder according to that barbarous fashion which she
lived to see introduced, was the delight of numerous admirers. Among the
gallants who sued for her favour, Colonel Churchill, young, handsome,
graceful, insinuating, eloquent and brave, obtained the preference. He
must have been enamoured indeed. For he had little property except the
annuity which he had bought with the infamous wages bestowed on him by
the Duchess of Cleveland: he was insatiable of riches: Sarah was poor;
and a plain girl with a large fortune was proposed to him. His love,
after a struggle, prevailed over his avarice: marriage only strengthened
his passion; and, to the last hour of his life, Sarah enjoyed the
pleasure and distinction of being the one human being who was able to
mislead that farsighted and surefooted judgment, who was fervently
loved by that cold heart, and who was servilely feared by that intrepid
spirit.

In a worldly sense the fidelity of Churchill's love was amply rewarded.
His bride, though slenderly portioned, brought with her a dowry which,
judiciously employed, made him at length a Duke of England, a Prince
of the Empire, the captain general of a great coalition, the arbiter
between mighty princes, and, what he val