to say, it attracted no notice, and has never,
as far as I know, been mentioned by any biographer of Marlborough.

The narrative of James requires no confirmation; but it is strongly
confirmed by the Burnet MS. Harl. 6584. "Marleburrough," Burnet wrote in
September 1693, "set himself to decry the King's conduct and to lessen
him in all his discourses, and to possess the English with an aversion
to the Dutch, who, as he pretended, had a much larger share of the
King's favour and confidence than they,"--the English, I suppose,--"had.
This was a point on which the English, who are too apt to despise all
other nations, and to overvalue themselves, were easily enough inflamed.
So it grew to be the universal subject of discourse, and was the
constant entertainment at Marleburrough's, where there was a constant
randivous of the English officers." About the dismission of Marlborough,
Burnet wrote at the same time: "The King said to myself upon it that
he had very good reason to believe that he had made his peace with King
James and was engaged in a correspondence with France. It is certain he
was doing all he could to set on a faction in the army and the nation
against the Dutch."

It is curious to compare this plain tale, told while the facts were
recent, with the shuffling narrative which Burnet prepared for the
public eye many years later, when Marlborough was closely united to the
Whigs, and was rendering great and splendid services to the country.
Burnet, ii. 90.

The Duchess of Marlborough, in her Vindication, had the effrontery to
declare that she "could never learn what cause the King assigned for his
displeasure." She suggests that Young's forgery may have been the cause.
Now she must have known that Young's forgery was not committed till some
months after her husband's disgrace. She was indeed lamentably deficient
in memory, a faculty which is proverbially said to be necessary to
persons of the class to which she belonged. Her own volume convicts her
of falsehood. She gives us a letter from Mary to Anne, in which Mary
says, "I need not repeat the cause my Lord Marlborough has given the
King to do what he has done." These words plainly imply that Anne had
been apprised of the cause. If she had not been apprised of the cause
would she not have said so in her answer? But we have her answer; and it
contains not a word on the subject. She was then apprised of the cause;
and is it possible to believe that she kept it a se