of five hundred a
year, well secured on the estate of Lord Chesterfield's grandfather,
Halifax.[40]

[40] Chesterfield's Letters, November 18th, 1748.

After some disputes and obstacles on the part of the Churchill family,
which the Duchess of York herself took the trouble to obviate, the two
lovers were united in the month of April, 1678: and whilst the husband
advanced in the confidence and favour of James, his wife made still more
rapid progress in the affections of the young Princess, his daughter.

During many years of married happiness, Churchill testified the greatest
affection for his wife, and always kept her minutely informed--even
amidst councils and battle-fields--upon the state of public affairs, and
showed the most entire deference and the liveliest affection for her.
Most of his letters end with these words: "I am yours, heart and soul."
Lady Churchill governed this great man, in fact, like a child--who
himself governed kings. Like the Princess des Ursins, she possessed
incontestably certain qualities, a liking and capacity for public
business, a knowledge of men, the shrewdness of her sex, the obstinacy
of her race, an inconceivable love of domination; but she was hard,
vindictive, insatiable of honours and wealth, and united to the pride of
a queen the rage of a fury.

Aided by his sister, by the King's imperious mistress and his own
incontestable merit, Churchill climbed fast up the ladder of
preferment. He obtained successively the command of the only dragoon
regiment in the service, a Scotch peerage, and the post of Ambassador to
the Court of France. Lord Churchill, however, was destined to be
advanced still higher in court favour through the influence of his wife
and his own genius as a general.

At the Revolution of 1688, he coldly foorsook James II., his benefactor,
and carried over his formidable sword to the House of Orange. The
Revolution augmented his fortune. Created Earl and General by William
III.; Duke, Knight of the Garter and Commander of the British Armies by
Queen Anne. Marlborough was one of those men whom conviction astonishes,
devotedness confounds; who acknowledge no other law than that of their
own interest, no other deity than success, and which the uncontrollable
current of human affairs not unfrequently brings rapidly to the surface.
Cradled in revolutions, he had seen the Commonwealth pass away, the
Stuarts fall, the House of Orange proclaimed. He had taken part in
i