er states.

Well might Mr. Pitt style the Treaty of Utrecht

"the indelible reproach of the age.' "'*

Marlborough's public career was now terminated; and the dissensions which cast him down from

power

had

62. Marlborough is

received with

the highest hon.

tinent, 24th

so completely extinguished his political influence, that, during the remaining years of his life, he ors on the Conrarely appeared at all in public life. On landing Nov., 1713. on the Continent, at Brille, on the 24th of November, he was received with such demonstrations of gratitude and respect as showed how deeply his public services had sunk into the hearts of men, and how warmly they appreciated his efforts to avert from England and the Coalition the evils likely to flow from the Treaty of Utrecht. At Maestricht he was welcomed with the honors usually reserved for sovereign princes; and although he did his utmost, on the journey to Aix la Chapelle, to avoid attracting the public attention, and to slip unobserved through by-ways, yet the eagerness of the public, or the gratitude of his old soldiers, discovered him wherever he went. Wherever he passed, crowds of all ranks were waiting to see him, were it only to get a glimpse of the hero who had saved the empire, and filled the world with his renown. All were struck with his noble air and demeanor, softened, though not weakened, by the approach of age. They declared that his appearance was not less overpowering than his sword. Many burst into tears when they recollected what he had been and what he was, and how unaccountably the great nation to which he belonged had fallen from the height of glory to such degradation. Yet was the manner of Marlborough so courteous and yet animated, his conversation so simple and yet cheerful, that it was commonly said at the time, "that the only things he had forgotten were his own deeds, and the only things he remembered were the misfortunes of others." Crowds of all ranks, from the highest to the lowest, hastened to attend his levee at Aix la Chapelle on the 17th of Janu* Mr. Pitt to Sir Benjamin Keene. CoxE's Memoirs of the Spanish Kings of the House of Bourbon, c. 57.

ary, 1713; and the Duke de Ledeguires, on leaving it, said, with equal justice and felicity, "I can now say that I have seen the man who is equal to the Mareschal de Turenne in conduct, to the Prince of Condé in courage, and superior to the Mareschal de Luxembourg in success.

Base ingrati

him.

But if the veteran hero found some compensation in the 63. unanimous admiration of foreign nations for the intude of the Im- gratitude with which he had been treated by the perial court to government of his own, he was soon destined to find that gratitude for past services was not to be looked for among foreign potentates any more than his own countrymen. Upon the restoration of the elector, by the treaty of Rastadt, the principality of Mendleheim, which had been bestowed upon him after the battle of Blenheim by the Emperor Joseph, was resumed by the elector. No stipulation in his favor was made either by the British government or the Imperial court, and therefore the estate, which yielded a clear revenue of £2000 a year, was lost to Marlborough. He transmitted, through Prince Eugene, a memorial to the emperor, claiming an indemnity for his loss; but, though it was earnestly supported by that generous prince, yet, being unaided by any efforts on the part of the English ministry, it was allowed to fall asleep. An indemnity was often promised, even by the emperor in writing,† but performance of the promise was always evaded. The duke was made a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, but obtained nothing but empty honors for his services; and at this moment these high-sounding titles are all that remain in the Marlborough family to testify the gratitude of the Cæsars to the hero who saved their Imperial and royal thrones.‡

"At the future congress, his Imperial majesty will do all that is possi ble to sustain my lord duke in the principality of Mendleheim; but if it should so happen that any invincible difficulty should occur in that affair, his Imperial highness will give his highness an equivalent out of his own hereditary dominions."-Emperor Charles VI. to Duchess of Marlborough, Aɑgust 8, 1712. CoxE, vi., 248. COXE, vi., 249–251.

Continued mal

The same oblivion of past and invaluable services, when they were no longer required, pursued the illustri- 64. ous general in his declining years, on the part of ice against him his own countrymen. The got-up stories about at home. embezzlement and dilapidation of the public money in Flanders were allowed to go to sleep when they had answered their destined purpose of bringing about his fall from political power. No grounds were found for a prosecution, or which could afford a chance of success, even in the swamped and now subservient House of Peers. But every thing that malice could suggest, or party bitterness effect, was employed to fill the last days of the immortal hero with anxiety and disquiet. Additional charges were brought against him by the commissioners, founded on the allegation that he had drawn a pistole per troop, and ten shillings a company, for mustering the soldiers, though, in the foreign auxiliaries, it was often not done. Marlborough at once transmitted a refutation of these fresh charges, so clear and decisive, that it entirely silenced those accusations.* But his enemies, though driven from this ground, still persecuted him with unrelenting malice. noble pile of Blenheim, standing, as it did, an enduring mónument at once of the duke's services and the nation's gratitude, was a grievous eyesore to the dominant majority in England, and they did all in their power to prevent its completion.

65.

The

Blenheim at

Orders were first given to the Treasury on the 1st of June, 1712, to suspend any further payments from the Suspension of royal exchequer, and commissioners were appoint- the building of ed to investigate the claims of the creditors and ex- the public expense of the work. They recommended the ad- pense. vance of a third to each claimant, which was accordingly made; but as many years elapsed, and no further payments to account were made, the principal creditors brought an action in the Court of Exchequer against the duke, as personally liable for the amount, and the court pronounced decree in favor of the plaintiffs, which was affirmed, after a long litiga* Duke of Marlborough's Answer, June 2, 1713.

tion, in the House of Lords. Meanwhile, the building itself, for want of any paymaster, was at a stand; and this noble pile, this proud monument of a nation's gratitude, would have remained a modern ruin to this day, had it not been completed from the private funds of the hero whose services it was intended to commemorate. But the Duke of Marlborough, as well as the duchess, were too much interested in the work to allow it to remain unfinished. He left by his will fifty thousand pounds to complete the building, which was still in a very unfinished state at the time of his death, and the duty was faithfully performed by the duchess after his decease. From the accounts of the total expense, preserved at Blenheim, it appears that out of three hundred thousand pounds, which the whole edifice cost, no less than sixty thousand pounds were provided from the private funds of the Duke of Marlborough.*

Which arose

ration of the

It may readily be believed that so long-continued and unre3 66. lenting a persecution of a man, so great and so disfrom a plan tinguished a benefactor of his country, proceeded for the resto: from something more than mere envy at greatness, Stuarts. powerful as that principle ever is in little minds. In truth, it was part of the deep-laid plan for the restoration of the Stuart line, which the declining state of the queen's health, and the probable unpopularity of the Hanover family, now revived in greater vigor than ever. During this critical period, Marlborough, who was still on the Continent, remained perfectly firm to the Act of Settlement and the Protestant cause. Convinced that England was threatened with a counter-revolution, he used his endeavors to secure the fidelity of the garrison of Dunkirk, and offered to embark at their head in support of the Protestant succession. He sent General Cadogan to make the necessary arrangements with General Stanhope for transporting troops to England to support the Hanoverian succession, and offered to lend the Elector of Hanover £20,000 to aid him in his endeavor to secure the * COXE, vi., 369-373.

succession. So sensible was the electoral house of the magnitude of his services, and his zeal in their behalf, that the Electress Sophia intrusted him with a blank warrant, appointing him commander-in-chief of her troops and garrisons, on her accession to the crown.*

ough's conduct on the accession of the Hanover fami

ly.

On the death of Queen Anne, on the 1st of August, 1714, Marlborough returned to England, and was soon 67. Death of Anne, after appointed captain-general and master-gener- and Marlbor al of the ordnance. Bolingbroke and Oxford were shortly after impeached, and the former then threw off the mask by flying to France, where he openly entered into the service of the Pretender at St. Germain's. The duke's great popularity with the army was soon after the means of enabling him to appease a mutiny in the Guards, which at first threatened to be alarming. During the rebellion in 1715, he directed, in a great degree, the operations against the rebels, though he did not actually take the field; and to his exertions its rapid suppression is in a great measure to be ascribed.

68. His domestic bereavements

and stroke of palsy, 28th of

But the period had now arrived when the usual fate of mortality awaited this illustrious man. Severe domestic bereavements preceded his dissolution, and in a manner weaned him from a world which he had passed through with so much glory. His May, 1716. daughter, Lady Bridgewater, died in March, 1714; and this was soon followed by the death of his favorite daughter Anne, Countess of Sunderland, who united uncommon elegance and beauty to unaffected piety and exemplary virtue. Marlborough himself was not long of following his beloved relatives to the grave. On the 28th of May, 1716, he was seized with a fit of palsy, so severe that it deprived him, for a time, alike of speech and resolution. He recovered, however, in a certain degree, and went to Bath for the benefit of the waters; and a gleam of returning light shone upon his mind when he visited Blenheim on the 18th of October. He expressed great satisfaction at the survey of the plan, which reminded him of

* COXE. vi., 263.