Stuarts

2io THE STUARTS
natural eloquence moved the envy of practised rhetoricians. His courage
was singularly cool and imperturbable. During many years of anxiety and
peril, he never, in any emergency, lost, even for a moment, the perfect use
of his admirable judgment. His serene intrepidity distinguished him among
thousands of brave soldiers, and his professional skill commanded the respect
of veteran officers.
" Unhappily his splendid qualities 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 from 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 ^5000. With
this sum the prudent young hero bought an annuity of ^500 a year, well
secured on landed property." To this I subjoin Mr. Green's estimate of this
great man, whose life he finds full of baseness and treason.
" He retained to the last the indolent grace of his youth. His natural
dignity was never ruffled by an outbreak of temper. Amidst the storm of
battle men saw him without fear of danger, or in the least hurry, giving his
orders with all the calmness imaginable. In the cabinet he was as cool as
on the battlefield.
" ' I think it better to be envied than pitied,' he says. His passion for
his wife was the one sentiment which tinged the colourless light in which
his understanding moved. In all else he was without love or hate, he knew
neither doubt nor regret.
"In private life he was a humane and compassionate man; but if his
position required it, he could betray Englishmen to death in his negotiations
with St. Germains, or lead his army to a butchery such as that of Malplaquet.
Of honour, or the finer sentiments of mankind, he knew nothing, and he
turned without a shock from guiding Europe, and winning great victories,
to heap up a matchless fortune by. peculation or greed. He is, perhaps, the
only instance of a man of real greatness who loved money for money's sake.
But let us take our leave of him in the noble tribute of Bolingbroke : 'he
was so very great a man 1 forgot he had that vice.'" There is a portrait
of Marlborough by the fashionable miniature painter of his day, Bernard
Lens, belonging to Viscount Churchill. It is a superlatively fine miniature,