t galled her
feelings to be obliged to notice what she held in contempt, still she
had no other course to pursue.

At length, the Duchess perceived clearly enough that she had been
hoodwinked in certain matters by the Queen and Mrs. Masham, and that
without any reasonable cause for resorting to mystery or deception.
Having discovered that not only was Mrs. Hill's marriage known to the
Queen, though she had denied any knowledge of the event, but that her
Majesty had been herself at the wedding, and given a large dower to the
bride, the Duchess immediately wrote to Mrs. Masham, to desire an
explanation of her reasons for concealing so important an occurrence
from one whom she had every reason to consider her only friend. The
cautious answer which she received to her question was dictated, as she
easily perceived, by no other than Harley, whose tool she now saw, too
late, her unworthy cousin was; and it became sufficiently plain that her
empire over the mind of the weak Queen was gone.

The Duchess was, whatever her faults, upright, honest, truthtelling, and
fearless; and _she_ was long before she could suspect the treachery and
meanness of a dependent; and still longer in believing that the woman
who had for so many years been her pupil, and had been accustomed to her
frankness, could condescend to a low cabal, and, displacing her from her
councils, solace herself with the society of a person so immeasurably
her inferior.

The betrayed Mistress of the Robes could now trace the whole system of
deception which had been carried on to her injury for a considerable
time; her relative and former dependent being the chief agent--her
sovereign the accomplice. She could account for the interest which
Harley had now acquired at court by means of this new instrument. She
could explain to her astonished and irritated mind certain incidents,
which had seemed of little moment when they occurred, but which
afforded an unquestionable confirmation of all that she had learned.

When the Duchess could no longer doubt the mortifying truth, she
communicated the fact to her friend, Lord Godolphin, and to her husband,
then abroad. Marlborough wearied with these, as he considered them,
petty dissensions, wrote a somewhat stern letter to his wife. The great
soldier was annoyed and distressed at the details of paltry wrongs which
he was obliged to hear, and grown impatient, forgot that sometimes,--

"Dire events from little causes spring;"