CHAPTER 15.

1703.

Illness and death of the marquess of Blandford.-Correspondence on the occasion.- Affectionate letters of the duke to the duchess from the continent.-Marriages of his two younger daughters, ladies Elizabeth and Mary.

NOTWITHSTANDING the mortifications which Marlborough had endured from his tory friends, he was gratified by their zeal and promptitude in granting the supplies, both for the army and navy, as well as the subsidies for the pay of the foreign auxiliaries. The parliament also voted a supply for an augmentation of 10,000 additional troops, under the condition that the States General should prohibit all commerce and correspondence with France and Spain. The States were thus compelled to relinquish an intercourse against which Marlborough had before remonstrated in vain; and the king of France was deprived of the facility, which he had hitherto enjoyed, of remitting money to the elector of Bavaria and the Italian army, as well as his subjects of the profitable commerce which they carried on under the protection of the dutch flag.

While Marlborough was actively employed in maturing the military preparations, he was visited

by a domestic calamity of the severest kind, the death of his only son, the marquess of Blandford. His wife had borne him two sons, John and Charles, and four daughters. The daughters all survived; but the second son, Charles, died at an early age. The elder, a promising youth, still remained, and had now reached his seventeenth year. He was amiable in. disposition, and united a solid understanding and lively parts with the most captivating mildness and docility.

After receiving a careful education at Eton, where he distinguished himself by his classical attainments, he was destined to fill the place of master of the horse to the young duke of Glouces ter, that he might grow up in intimacy with the future sovereign. But on the death of the prince, he was sent to King's College in the university of Cambridge, and placed under the tuition of Mr. Hare, afterwards well known as chaplain to the duke, and bishop of Chichester. Notwithstanding his high birth, splendid prospects, and courtly education, he set an example of affability, regularity, and steadiness, above his years; and in one of his letters to lord Godolphin, he expresses the warmest approbation both of the studies and discipline of the place. He was regular also in the performance of his religious duties, and a punctual attendant at the administration of the holy sacrament. The turn of his character was displayed by the choice of his associates. His steady, affectionate, and studious disposition, led him to form an intimate friendship with Horace, afterwards lord Walpole, who was then a fellow of the same

college, and who not only spoke of his qualities as singularly excellent and amiable, but at later times never mentioned his name without expressions of regret.

In this early period of his life, the fame of his illustrious father inspired the young nobleman with a strong passion for a military life, and in the midst of the campaign in 1702, we find him earnestly soliciting permission to serve in the Netherlands. Marlborough was too much gratified with this indication of youthful spirit to reject his request; but on referring the proposal to the decision of his lady, the anxious mother shrunk from the prospect of the danger and hardship to which her darling son must necessarily be exposed in a military life. The youth, however, was not discouraged by this repulse, for he persisted in his resolution to enter the army, and promised to procure for his friend, Horace Walpole, a commission in the cavalry, that they might both serve together.*

On this promising youth the fond father placed his hopes of transmitting his name and honours to posterity, and the mother loved him with the enthusiastic warmth of her temper. Among the Blenheim papers are several letters from lord Godolphin to the duchess, which exhibit striking proofs of their parental solicitude, and present in an interesting light those amiable qualities which so justly called forth their affection.

“August 5,—I will repeat to you, that I find

* Letters of the duke to the duchess in 1702.—Lord Walpole's Memoirs, chapter 4.

lord Churchill very lean. He is tractable and good-humoured, and without any one ill inclination, that I can perceive. And I think he is grown more solid than he was, and has lost a great deal of that impatience of diverting himself all manner of ways, which he used to have. This is truly just as I find him, and I thought it might not be improper to give you this account, that you might be the better judge whether you would desire to see him now, according to the proposal I made in my letter of yesterday, or stay for that satisfaction till my lord Marlborough comes over."

"Newmarket, October 5.-Lord Churchill is now at Cambridge, but to-day he comes hither for five or six days. What you write about him, is, I think, extremely just and reasonable, and though the smallpox has been in this town, yet he going into no house but mine, will I hope be more defended from it by air and riding, without any violent exercise, than he could possibly be any where else."

"October 8.-Lord Churchill is extremely regular and orderly, nor do I see the least inclination in him to be otherwise. The good air and moderate exercise of this place, makes him look much better than when he came hither.'

"St. James's, Tuesday, 13. "I am sure it will not be unreasonable to hear something of your pretty son, whom I have just now parted from; and I assure you, without flattery or partiality, that he is not only the best natured and most agreeable, but the most free-thinking and reasonable creature that one can imagine of his age. He had twenty pretty questions and

requests, but I will not trouble you with the particulars, till I have the honour to see you.'

Unfortunately the fears, which we find expressed in one of the preceding letters, were but too wellfounded. A few days after his return to Cambridge, he was seized with a disorder which soon proved to be a small-pox of the most malignant kind. On the first news of the attack, the duchess hurried to Cambridge, and finding her son in imminent danger, sent to London for medical advice.. The queen, with her usual affection, dispatched two of the physicians of her household, who, for the greater expedition, travelled in one of the royal carriages. She at the same time testified her sympathy in a consolatory note.

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Thursday morning. "I writ two words to my dear Mrs. Freeman yesterday, and could not help telling her again that I am truly afflicted for the melancholy account that is come again this morning of poor dear lord Blandford. I pray God grant he may do well, and support you. And give me leave once more to beg you for Christ Jesus' sake, to have a care of your dear precious self, and believe me with all the passion imaginable, your poor unfortunate faithful Morley.” *

"that

"I wish," she added in another letter, the messenger who carries the medicines which my dear Mrs. Freeman sends for, could fly, that no

This was the epithet by which the queen in her letters to lady Marlborough invariably designated herself after the death of her son the duke of Gloucester.