CHAPTER II.

Lord Churchill created Earl of Marlborough by William III. and sent to Holland in command of the English forces.—Present at the battle of Walcourt. Goes over to Ireland, and reduces the towns of Cork and Kinsale.-Anecdote of the Duke of Wirtenburg.-Prince Vaudemont's character of Marlborough. Deprived of all his appointments, and arrested by order of King William.—Proved to have maintained a close correspondence with the exiled Court, at the period of his arrest.—His avarice and ambition.-Betrays to James II. the project of the English Government to destroy the French ships in the harbour of Brest.-Restored to all his honours by King William, and appointed Governor to the young Duke of Gloucester, and, soon afterwards, Ambassador Extraordinary to the States.-Made a Knight of the Garter, and Captain-General of the Queen's forces in England and elsewhere. His successes in the campaign against France, for which he is created Marquis of Blandford, and Duke of Marlborough.-Pension of five thousand per annum also conferred on him.-Death of his only son at Cambridge.

UNFAVOURABLE as was the opinion which the Prince of Orange appears to have entertained of Lord Churchill's character, he was, nevertheless, a person of too much importance, and had laid the Prince under obligations of too grave a character, to allow of his services or his interests

being overlooked. Accordingly, immediately

after the accession of William, he was advanced to a higher rank in his profession; he was in

trusted with the office of remodelling the army, and of reducing some of the newly-raised regiments; was sworn of the Privy Council, and appointed a Gentleman of the Bedchamber. On the 9th of April, the same year (1689), he was created Earl of Marlborough, and, shortly afterwards, was sent to Holland, in command of the English forces intended to serve in the army of the allies under the Prince of Waldeck.

Marlborough arrived at Rotterdam in the month of May, and in August following was present at the battle of Walcourt, where the English troops distinguished themselves in a very creditable manner by their personal gallantry. It was on this occasion that the Prince of Waldeck, while commending Lord Marlborough's conduct to King William, observed, "I have seen more of the art of war in a day, than some generals in many years."

William himself wrote to Marlborough shortly after the battle,-"I am very happy that my troops behaved so well at Walcourt. It is to you that this advantage is principally owing. You will please, accordingly, to accept my thanks, and rest assured that your conduct will induce me to confer on you still farther marks of my esteem and friendship, on which you may always rely.' On the return of the Earl to England, he is said to have been received by William with an appearance of cordiality, which that monarch rarely exhibited in his personal inter

* Coxe's Life of Marlborough, vol. i. p. 83.

course with others. However, as the King omitted to avail himself of Marlborough's services during the next campaign, either he was guilty of insincerity when he made his recent professions, or (what is rendered more probable by the Earl's subsequent conduct) had reason to suspect his allegiance and good faith. Jealousy of Marlborough's increasing reputation, it was certainly not in the nature of William to feel.

During the following year, 1690, while King William was carrying on the campaign in Ireland, the great genius of Marlborough was again allowed to remain inactive in England; nor was it till the close of the campaign, that he was permitted an opportunity of exercising his extraordinary talents. The city of Cork was at this period garrisoned by a body of four thousand Irish and French, and owing to the strong works which the besieged had thrown up, and the measures they had taken for its defence, the city was regarded as presenting one of the most serious obstacles that King William would have to surmount in his reduction of Ireland.

There were in England at this period a body of five thousand troops for whose services there was no immediate demand; and, accordingly, Marlborough, having previously made himself acquainted with the military features of Cork and its vicinity, and having obtained secret information that the French fleet, which might otherwise have materially interfered with his projected proceedings,

were on the point of laying up for the season, made an eager application to be placed at the head of this unemployed force; affirming, on the hazard of his reputation, that he would reduce the cities of Cork and Kinsale before the winter should have set in. In such a man as Marlborough, confidence was equivalent to success. Queen Mary (who at this period was Regent of the kingdom) gave her consent to the undertaking, and the Earl, on his part, made his preparations with such vigor, that on the twenty-first of September he was able to present himself before the walls of Cork.

Shortly after he had commenced his plans, he was joined by the Duke of Wirtenburg, with a body of four thousand Danes; a circumstance which directly threatened to rob him of the glory he had anticipated. The Prince, it seems, (though a junior officer in point of military rank, and at the head only of an auxiliary force,) insisted, on the ground that he was a sovereign Prince, that the command devolved upon him as a matter of right. Marlborough, it may easily be believed, was unwilling to yield his legitimate claims, and, consequently, a misunderstanding was apprehended by their mutual followers, that might have been fatal to the cause in which they were embarked. Forgetting, however, his indignation in his care for his own interests, (or, it may be, those of his country,) Marlborough yielded to a disagreeable emergency, and generously proposed that the Prince and himself

should take the command on each alternate day. But his subsequent conduct was still more characteristic of the man. Instead of exhibiting any signs of that mortification which he must undoubtedly have felt; instead of attempting to thwart the plans, or diminish the credit of his rival, he gave evidence of a magnanimity and good feeling which cannot be sufficiently extolled. When his turn came to issue the order of the day the word which he gave was "Wirtenburg:" The Prince was naturally gratified at the compliment, and, unwilling to be outdone in politeness,. gave, in his turn, the watch-word of "Marlborough." This slight incident entirely checked any unpleasant feeling of rivalry, and was succeeded, indeed, by a chivalrous competition as to him who should most assist the views and projects of the other.

"In 1692," says Dalrymple, "to the astonishment of the world, and without any apparent cause, the Earl of Marlborough was suddenly deprived of all his appointments. A visit which he received from Lord George Hamilton (who formally acquainted him that his Majesty had no further occasion for his services,) is said to have been the first intimation to him of his having encountered the King's displeasure. He was immediately removed from his post of Gentleman of the Bedchamber; his regiment of Guards was given to Lord Colchester; his regiment of Fusileers to Lord George Hamilton; and, moreover, General Talmash was selected to accompany the