e of his admirable judgment.

In his twenty-third year he was sent with his regiment to join the
French forces, then engaged in operations against Holland. His serene
intrepidity distinguished him among thousands of brave soldiers. His
professional skill commanded the respect of veteran officers. He was
publicly thanked at the head of the army, and received many marks
of esteem and confidence from Turenne, who was then at the height of
military glory.

Unhappily the splendid qualities of John Churchill were mingled with
alloy of the most sordid kind. Some propensities, which in youth are
singularly ungraceful, began very early to show themselves in him. He
was thrifty in his very vices, and levied ample contributions on ladies
enriched by the spoils of more liberal lovers. He was, during a short
time, the object of the violent but fickle fondness of the Duchess of
Cleveland. On one occasion he was caught with her by the King, and was
forced to leap out of the window. She rewarded this hazardous feat of
gallantry with a present of five thousand pounds. With this sum the
prudent young hero instantly bought an annuity of five hundred a year,
well secured on landed property. [240] Already his private drawer
contained a hoard of broad pieces which, fifty years later, when he
was a Duke, a Prince of the Empire, and the richest subject in Europe,
remained untouched. [241]

After the close of the war he was attached to the household of the Duke
of York, accompanied his patron to the Low Countries and to Edinburgh,
and was rewarded for his services with a Scotch peerage and with the
command of the only regiment of dragoons which was then on the English
establishment. [242] His wife had a post in the family of James's
younger daughter, the Princess of Denmark.

Lord Churchill was now sent as ambassador extraordinary to Versailles.
He had it in charge to express the warm gratitude of the English
government for the money which had been so generously bestowed. It had
been originally intended that he should at the same time ask Lewis for
a much larger sum; but, on full consideration, it was apprehended
that such indelicate greediness might disgust the benefactor whose
spontaneous liberality had been so signally displayed. Churchill was
therefore directed to confine himself to thanks for what was past, and
to say nothing about the future. [243]

But James and his ministers, even while protesting that they did not
mean to be impo