inclined to follow it, 'twill be
discovered, I have little doubt, that not one of the great personages
about the queen had a defined scheme of policy, independent of that
private and selfish interest which each was bent on pursuing; St. John was
for St. John, and Harley for Oxford, and Marlborough for John Churchill,
always; and according as they could get help from St. Germains or Hanover,
they sent over proffers of allegiance to the princes there, or betrayed
one to the other: one cause, or one sovereign, was as good as another to
them, so that they could hold the best place under him; and like Lockit
and Peachem, the Newgate chiefs in the _Rogues' Opera_ Mr. Gay wrote
afterwards, had each in his hand documents and proofs of treason which
would hang the other, only he did not dare to use the weapon, for fear of
that one which his neighbour also carried in his pocket. Think of the
great Marlborough, the greatest subject in all the world, a conqueror of
princes, that had marched victorious over Germany, Flanders, and France,
that had given the law to sovereigns abroad, and been worshipped as a
divinity at home, forced to sneak out of England--his credit, honours,
places, all taken from him; his friends in the army broke and ruined; and
flying before Harley, as abject and powerless as a poor debtor before a
bailiff with a writ. A paper, of which Harley got possession, and showing
beyond doubt that the duke was engaged with the Stuart family, was the
weapon with which the treasurer drove Marlborough out of the kingdom. He
fled to Antwerp, and began intriguing instantly on the other side, and
came back to England, as all know, a Whig and a Hanoverian.

Though the treasurer turned out of the army and office every man, military
or civil, known to be the duke's friend, and gave the vacant posts among
the Tory party; he, too, was playing the double game between Hanover and
St. Germains, awaiting the expected catastrophe of the queen's death to be
master of the state, and offer it to either family that should bribe him
best, or that the nation should declare for. Whichever the king was,
Harley's object was to reign over him; and to this end he supplanted the
former famous favourite, decried the actions of the war which had made
Marlborough's name illustrious, and disdained no more than the great
fallen competitor of his, the meanest arts, flatteries, intimidations,
that would secure his power. If the greatest satirist the world