ht and wrong,
and leave no other test in the general case for public conduct but
success. It is its first effect to place them in such trying
circumstances that none but the most confirmed and resolute virtue can
pass unscathed through the ordeal. He knew the human heart well, who
commanded us in our daily prayers to supplicate not to be led into
temptation, even before asking for deliverance from evil. Let no man be
sure, however much, on a calm survey, he may condemn the conduct of
Marlborough and Ney, that in similar circumstances he would not have
done the same.

The magnitude of the service rendered by Churchill to the Prince of
Orange, immediately appeared in the commands conferred upon him. Hardly
was he settled at William's headquarters when he was dispatched to
London to assume the command of the Horse Guards; and, while there, he
signed, on the 20th December 1688, the famous Act of Association in
favour of the Prince of Orange. Shortly after, he was named
lieutenant-general of the armies of William, and immediately made a new
organization of the troops, under officers whom he could trust, which
proved of the utmost service to William on the unstable throne on which
he was soon after seated. He was present at most of the long and
momentous debates which took place in the House of Peers on the question
on whom the crown should be conferred, and at first is said to have
inclined to a regency; but with a commendable delicacy he absented
himself on the night of the decisive vote on the vacancy of the throne.
He voted, however, on the 6th of February for the resolution which
settled the crown on William and Mary; and he assisted at their
coronation, under the title of Earl of Marlborough, to which he had
shortly before been elevated by William. England having, on the
accession of the new monarch, joined the continental league against
France, Marlborough received the command of the British auxiliary force
in the Netherlands, and by his courage and ability contributed in a
remarkable manner to the victory of Walcourt. In 1690 he received orders
to return from Flanders in order to assume a command in Ireland, then
agitated by a general insurrection in favour of James; but, actuated by
some remnant of attachment to his old benefactor, he eluded on various
pretences complying with the order, till the battle of the Boyne had
extinguished the hopes of the dethroned monarch, when he came over and
made himself master of Cor