Her Grace thereupon recollected her omission, and felt vexed at the resentment shown by the servant, but knew not how to remedy it. On returning home the duchess again stayed at the inn. That night the maid attended her as before. Child," said Sarah, "I hear you have a famous eye-water to sell; I have a mind tò be a purchaser." The girl, much confused, answered faintly that it had been disposed of. "What quantity might you have of it?" said her Grace. "Only a few dozens," replied she. "Well, can you supply more?' was the next question. The young woman, greatly embarrassed, relapsed into tears, and falling on her knees, confessed her fault and implored pardon. "Nay; but indeed, child," said her Grace, "you must make up some for me, for I have an excellent character of its sovereign virtues." Finding that the duchess would not be denied, the girl fetched some bottles, and, to the duchess's astonishment, she found her own crest attached to them, a thing she had never dreamt of. "Well, my dear," said Sarah, “I find you're a mistress of your trade; you make no scruple to counterfeit a seal." "Madam," replied the maid, "you dropped the seal in the room, and that put the idea into my head." "And what might you gain," said her Grace, "by your last supply?" "Fifty francs," was the answer. 'Very well," said the duchess, "please restore the seal and there is double that sum for you," putting five Louis d'or in her hand, and she added with a severe look and in a stern voice, “Beware of counterfeits." 1 In October, towards the end of the campaign, the King of Saxony, thinking Marlborough was about to embark for England, wished him a prosperous voyage. 1 66 "Percy Anecdotes." The duke answered in French with great humour, “Que le temps etant fort froid, il ne voulait pas passer la mer sans Gand." Accordingly, he and Prince Eugene crowned their successes by the taking of Ghent and Bruges, the former place having been betrayed into French hands some months previously. On the duke's arrival before Ghent, the chief magistrate waited upon him and begged he would not bombard the town, assuring him he would prevail on the garrison to surrender. Notwithstanding this, preparations for an assault went forward. Before it was too late, Count la Motte capitulated, and the garrison was allowed to march out with all honour. M CHAPTER VIII UNDER QUEEN ANNE "Then came your new friend: you began to change— You turned your warmer currents all to her, And partly that I hoped to win you back." By various hints in the preceding letters, one perceives things had not been going very smoothly at court. To understand the misunderstandings that led up to this state of affairs, it is necessary to go back a little in point of time. On becoming Queen, Anne had thrown herself into the hands of the Tory party, a step disapproved of by Lady Marlborough, who considered the Queen would have done better to support the Whigs, as stauncher to the principles of the Revolution and more likely to promote the welfare of queen and country. These two great factions, Whig and Tory, were the outcome of the Puritans and Royalists. Many of the Tories were believed to be Jacobites at heart. They hated the dissenters and were against toleration. Party feeling was intense, and showed itself by bitter acrimony on both sides. As time went on these factions modified their opinions, and about a hundred years later merged into the Conservative and Liberal parties of the present day. Anne from her infancy had imbibed the most unconquerable prejudice against the Whigs, looking upon them as Republicans and implacable enemies to the Church of England. The Tories had on the contrary assisted her with her settlement, though they had done this more to oppose King William than out of regard for the Princess Anne. Sarah says that notwithstanding Lord Marlborough and Lord Godolphin's long devotion to her cause, Anne would not have favoured them on ascending the throne had they not belonged to the Tory party. Both these lords had from childhood held the belief that the Tory or High Church party was the best for the Constitution. Nor," says Sarah, "were they perfectly undeceived but by experience!" Where The differences that arose between the Queen and Sarah on the subject of politics, was no doubt the thin end of the wedge of discord, and these disagreements Iwere taken advantage of by two intriguing persons about the court. These were Mrs. Masham and Harley, who had for long been plotting to get the Queen into their power. Something must now be said of Mrs. Masham's -otherwise Abigail Hill's-antecedents. Long before Sarah's birth, one of her father's sisters married a Mr. Hill, a merchant trading in the East, who unfortunately was not content with ordinary business, but took to speculation and brought ruin upon his family. It was after Princess Anne's marriage that Mrs. Churchill was informed that these relations of hers, whom she had never seen, were in great want-on hearing which Sarah gave ten guineas for their immediate necessities, promising to do what she could for them. Subsequently she saw Mrs. Hill and helped her further. Soon after the interview Mrs. Hill died, and left four children. Green Abigail, the eldest, was invited to live at St. Albans with Sarah's own family, and was treated with great kindness. A vacancy occurring in the princess's household, Sarah applied for the post for her cousin and obtained it. When later Lord Churchill was forming the Duke of Gloucester's household, Sarah got him to appoint Abigail's younger sister a superintendent of the laundry, and on the young prince's death a pension of £200 a year was granted her out of the privy purse. This sum was afterwards computed, and an annuity bought with the money. Abigail's eldest brother obtained a post in the Custom-House, through the good offices of Lord Godolphin, while the youngest boy Mrs. Churchill clothed and sent to a good school at St. Albans, frequently asking him to her house, and treating him as her own child. When he left school he obtained a vacant post in Prince George's household, at Sarah's request, and later was promoted Groom of the Chamber to the Duke of Gloucester. And," says Sarah, "though my Lord Marlborough always said that Jack Hill was good for nothing, yet, to oblige me, he made him his aide-de-camp and afterwards gave him a regiment, but it was his sister's interest that raised him to be a general and to command in that ever memorable expedition to Quebec. When Mr. Harley thought it useful to attack the Duke of Marlborough in Parliament, this Quebec general, this honest Jack Hill, this once ragged boy whom I clothed, happening to be sick in bed, was nevertheless persuaded by his sister to get up and go to the House to vote against the Duke." Sarah has been blamed for providing so well for her relations, but she would have been much more censured in her own day if, with so much influence, she had allowed |