him, and one from his dear mistress to Esmond, which interested
him not a little.

The young Marquis of Blandford, his grace's son, who had been entered in
King's College in Cambridge (whither my lord viscount had also gone, to
Trinity, with Mr. Tusher as his governor), had been seized with small-pox,
and was dead at sixteen years of age, and so poor Frank's schemes for his
sister's advancement were over, and that innocent childish passion nipped
in the birth.

Esmond's mistress would have had him return, at least her letters hinted
as much; but in the presence of the enemy this was impossible, and our
young man took his humble share in the siege, which need not be described
here, and had the good luck to escape without a wound of any sort, and to
drink his general's health after the surrender. He was in constant
military duty this year, and did not think of asking for a leave of
absence, as one or two of his less fortunate friends did, who were cast
away in that tremendous storm which happened towards the close of
November, that "which of late o'er pale Britannia past" (as Mr. Addison
sang of it), and in which scores of our greatest ships and 15,000 of our
seamen went down.

They said that our duke was quite heartbroken by the calamity which had
befallen his family; but his enemies found that he could subdue them, as
well as master his grief. Successful as had been this great general's
operations in the past year, they were far enhanced by the splendour of
his victory in the ensuing campaign. His grace the captain-general went to
England after Bonn, and our army fell back into Holland, where, in April,
1704, his grace again found the troops embarking from Harwich and landing
at Maesland Sluys: thence his grace came immediately to the Hague, where
he received the foreign ministers, general officers, and other people of
quality. The greatest honours were paid to his grace everywhere--at the
Hague, Utrecht, Ruremonde, and Maestricht; the civic authorities coming to
meet his coaches: salvos of cannon saluting him, canopies of state being
erected for him where he stopped, and feasts prepared for the numerous
gentlemen following in his suite. His grace reviewed the troops of the
States-General between Liege and Maestricht, and afterwards the English
forces, under the command of General Churchill, near Bois-le-Duc. Every
preparation was made for a long march; and the army heard, with no small
elation, that it was the comman