lso silent and discreet both through taste and by nature. Older
men were oftenest privately envious and ambitious; and a man who has
desires for place and power is not to be trusted by one who has gained
the highest and is attacked by jealousy on all sides. This man was
rich, of high rank, and desired nothing his Grace wished to retain;
besides this, his nature was large and so ruled by high honour that
'twas not in him to scheme or parley with schemers. So it befel that,
despite his youth, he enjoyed the privilege of being treated as if his
years had been as ripe as his intellect. He knew and learned many
things. Less was hid from him than from any other man in the army, had
the truth been known. When 'twas a burning necessity for the great man
to cross to England to persuade her Majesty to change her ministers,
Roxholm knew the processes by which the end was reached. He had
knowledge of all the feverish fits through which political England
passed, in greater measure than he himself was conscious of. His
reflections upon the affairs of Portugal and their management, his
belief in the importance of the Emperor's reconciliation with the
Protestants of Hungary, and of many a serious matter, were taken into
consideration and pondered over when he knew it not. In hastening
across the Channel to the English Court, in journeying to Berlin to
encounter great personages, in hearing of and beholding intrigue,
triumphs, disappointments, pomps, and vanities, he studied in the best
possible school the art and science of statesmanship, and won for
himself a place in men's minds and memories.

When, after Blenheim, he returned to England with a slight wound, his
appearance at Court was regarded as an event of public interest, and
commented upon with flowery rhetoric in the journals. The ladies vowed
he had actually grown taller than before, that his deep eyes had a
power no woman could resist, and that there was indeed no gentleman in
England to compare with him either for intellect, beauty, or breeding.
Her Majesty showed him a particular favour, and it was rumoured that
she had remarked that, had one of her many dead infants lived and grown
to such a manhood, she would have been a happy woman. Duchess Sarah
melted to him as none had ever seen her melt to man before. She had
heard many stories of him from her lord, and was prepared to be
gracious, but when she beheld him, she was won by another reason, for
he brought back to her the