pany, and the venality
of many members of parliament and even the ministry. His relations
with the king were now of the coldest kind, and he became mixed up in
a Jacobite plot. How far he was guilty in the matter was never proved.
Public opinion certainly condemned him, and by a vote of the peers he
was deprived of all his employments and sent to the Tower. The king,
however, stood his friend, and released him at the end of the session.

In 1697, by the death of his uncle, Charles became Earl of Peterborough,
and passed the next four years in private life, emerging only
occasionally to go down to the House of Peers and make fiery onslaughts
upon abuses and corruption. In the course of these years, both in
parliament and at court, he had been sometimes the friend, sometimes the
opponent of Marlborough; but he had the good fortune to be a favorite of
the duchess, and when the time came that a leader was required for the
proposed expedition to Spain, she exerted herself so effectually that
she procured his nomination.

Hitherto his life had been a strange one. Indolent and energetic by
turns, restless and intriguing, quarreling with all with whom he came
in contact, burning with righteous indignation against corruption and
misdoing, generous to a point which crippled his finances seriously, he
was a puzzle to all who knew him, and had he died at this time he
would only have left behind him the reputation of being one of the most
brilliant, gifted, and honest, but at the same time one of the most
unstable, eccentric, and ill regulated spirits of his time.

CHAPTER II: IMPRESSED

When the Mayor of Southampton opened the official document empowering
and requesting him to obtain recruits for the queen's service he was not
greatly pleased. This sort of thing would give a good deal of trouble,
and would assuredly not add to his popularity. He saw at once that he
would be able to oblige many of his friends by getting rid of people
troublesome to them, but with this exception where was he to find the
recruits the queen required? There were, of course, a few never do wells
in the town who could be packed off, to the general satisfaction of
the inhabitants, but beyond this every one taken would have friends and
relations who would cry out and protest.

It was likely to be a troublesome business, and the mayor threw down the
paper on the table before him. Then suddenly his expression changed.
He had been thinking of obligi