nesses as you used to do, by knowing I am sick one day, and well another, I must not be punctual in acquainting you when I am uneasy; for I would be just to you, and not make you uneasy. I think you are very happy in having dear lady Mary with you. I should esteem myself so, if she could be sometimes for an hour with me; for the greatest ease I now have, is sometimes sitting for an hour in my chair alone, and thinking of the happiness I may yet have, of living quietly with you, which is the greatest I propose to myself in this world." "Val notre Dame.

"I am so very uneasy since I received yours of the 23d of the last month, that I shall have no rest till I hear again from you, for your health is much dearer to me than my own. It is impossible for me to express what I feel, having seen by my lord treasurer of the same post, that he thought you very far from being well. For God's sake let me know exactly how you are; and if you think my being with you can do you any good, you shall quickly see you are much dearer to me than fame, or whatever the world can say; for, should you do otherwise than well, I were the unhappiest man living. We invested Huy yesterday, and I am afraid it will be a fortnight before we shall be masters of the castle. I pray God your next may put me more at ease than I am at this present."

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Op-heeren, August 2.-I have received yours of the 23d, which has given me, as you may easily believe, a good deal of trouble. I beg you will be so kind and just to me, as to believe the truth of my heart, that my greatest concern is for that

of your own dear health. It was a great pleasure to me when I thought that we should be blessed with more children; but as all my happiness centers in living quietly with you, I do conjure you, by all the kindness I have for you, which is as much as ever man had for woman, that you will take the best advice you can for your health, and then follow exactly what shall be prescribed for you, and I do hope you will be so good as to let me have an exact account of it, and what the physicians' opinions are. are. If I were with you I would endeavour to persuade you to think as little as is possible of worldly business, and to be very regular in your diet, which I should hope would set you right in a very little time, for you have naturally a very good constitution. You and I have great reason to bless God for all we have, so that we must not repiné at his taking our poor child from us, but bless and praise him for what his goodness leaves us; and I do beseech him, with all my heart and soul, that he would comfort and strengthen both you and me, not only to bear this, but any other correction that he shall think fit to lay on us. The use I think we should make of this his correction is, that our chiefest time should be spent in reconciling ourselves to him, and having in our minds always that we may not have long to live in this world. I do not mean by this that we should live retired from the world; for I am persuaded that, by living in the world, one may do much more good than by being out of it, but at the same time to live so as that one should cheerfully die when it shall be his pleasure to call for

us. I am very sensible of my own frailties; but if I can be ever so happy as to be always with you, and that you comfort and assist me in these my thoughts, I am then persuaded I should be as happy and contented as it is possible to be in this world; for I know we should both agree, next to our duty to God, to do what we ought for the queen's service."

Not long before the period of this domestic calamity, he had united his third daughter, lady Elizabeth, then in her seventeenth year, with Scroop Egerton, earl of Bridgewater. This alliance gave the queen an opportunity of testifying her regard to the family; and in a letter to the duchess, she offers to confer on the bride a portion of £10,000.

"Friday morning.

"My lord Bridgewater being in haste to be married, I cannot any longer delay telling my dear Mrs. Freeman what I have intended a great while, that I hope she will now give me leave to do what I had a mind to do when dear lady Harriet was married; and let me speak to lord treasurer about it, when I see him, that your poor unfortunate faithful Morley may not be any occasion of delay to other people's happiness.”

The only daughter remaining unmarried was lady Mary, who had now reached her sixteenth year. She was exquisitely beautiful, lively in temper, and no less amiable in mind than elegant in person. She enjoyed, in a peculiar degree, the affection of her parents, to whom she was doubly endeared by their recent loss, and is frequently

mentioned by the duke in his letters, in the warmest terms of parental tenderness.

At this early period she attracted many admirers, and, among the rest, the earl of Huntingdon and lord Tullybardine, son of the earl of Cromartie ; but their suit was fruitless. Her hand was also sought by the eccentric earl of Peterborough, for his son lord Mordaunt; but the duke objected to the licentious character and irregular habits of the young nobleman.

Shortly after a similar proposal was made by the family of Montagu, in favour of viscount Mounthermer, son of Ralph, earl of Montagu. But although this connection was not disapproved, yet, from the youth of the parties, and the hesitation of the lady herself, the match did not take place till the ensuing year. The queen endowed the bride with the same portion as her sister lady Elizabeth, and soon after the father was created duke of Montagu, by the interest of Marlborough, and the son obtained the reversion of the place of great master of the wardrobe, held by his father.

CHAPTER 16.

1703.

Accession of Portugal to the confederacy.—Insurrection in the Cevennes.-State of the military affairs, and extensive plans of the french court.-Arrival of Marlborough at the Hague.-Operations from the commencement of the campaign to the surrender of Bonn.

BEFORE We commence the narrative of this campaign, it will be proper to advert to some events, which affected the interests and influenced the conduct of the allies.

The king of Portugal, after acknowledging Philip as king of Spain, seized the first opportunity to resume his natural connections, and secretly concluded a treaty with England, which was the ground-work of a general alliance with the confederate powers. He recognised the rights of the archduke Charles to the spanish throne, and not only agreed to receive a combined army of english and dutch, to support his pretensions, but concluded a subsidiary treaty, for bringing into the field 28,000 Portuguese. This alliance opened the most vulnerable part of the frontier to an attack by land; and afforded the means of weakening the efforts of France in other quarters, by drawing off a considerable portion of her troops to main