very prettily calls crooked wisdom."[47] Apt, as
she herself expresses it, "to tumble out her mind," her openness and
honesty were appreciated, when at an advanced age, and after she had run
the career of five courts--by that experienced judge, the Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu, who often presumed upon the venerable Duchess's
candour in telling her unpalatable truths, which none but the honest
could have borne to hear. It was this uprightness and singleness of mind
which rendered the Duchess unwilling to believe in the duplicity and the
influence of her cousin. Warned of it by Mr. Mainwaring, it was not
until she found in the Queen a defender of Mrs. Masham's secret
marriage, that the Duchess was roused into suspicion. It was then that
she communicated her conviction to Lord Godolphin and to Marlborough,
and besought their advice and assistance.

[47] Private Correspondence, vol. i., p. 105.

The Duke had just then prepared measures for carrying on the war, and
had completed every arrangement for his voyage into Holland; the only
thing which detained him in England was, says Cunningham, "the quarrel
among the women about the court." He desired his often-offended Duchess
"to put an end to those controversies, and to avoid all occasions of
suspicion and disgust; and not to suffer herself to grow insolent upon
the favour of fortune; "otherwise," said he, "I shall hardly be able
hereafter to excuse your fault, or to justify my own actions, however
meritorious." To which the Duchess replied, "I will take care of those
things, so that you need not be in any fear about me; but whoever shall
think to remove me out of the Queen's favour, let them take care lest
they remove themselves."

It was not long before Marlborough perceived that the Duchess was not
mistaken in her apprehensions; nor before he became painfully aware of
the fact, that services of the greatest magnitude are often not to be
weighed against slights and petty provocations.

Queen Anne, however, had some pangs of conscience, in spite of her joy
at being emancipated from the thraldom of her haughty Mistress of the
Robes, in ill-treating the great general who had filled her reign with
glory; but the uninterrupted gossip which she delighted now to indulge
in with her waiting-woman compensated for all.

Soon after Marlborough had won the sanguinary battle of Malplaquet, the
celebrated trial of the noted Doctor Sacheverell took place; on which
occasion an incide