to the Emperor, another to an old friend, a third to a mistress, and a fourth to a statesman, and so on: and yet he carried so many and so different connexions in his head all at the same time." His civil services appear to have been rewarded more liberally than his military. On his return to England, in 1712, he was appointed Colonel of the horse-guards, and General of marines; and on the 4th of August, 1713, was created a knight of the Garter. At the close of the year he was sent ambassador to the King of Sicily, at whose court he remained till the death of Queen Anne. Two years after that event, while wandering among the Italian states, we find him arrested at Bologna, by order of the Papal Legate, on a charge of intending to assassinate the Pretender. His innocence was easily proved, and on his speedy release from prison, not only was every reparation offered by the Papal government, for the indignity, but it was questioned whether the English fleet would not receive orders to avenge it. Originally, a friendly feeling had existed between the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Peterborough, which ceased, however, as soon as they became rivals for fame. Shortly after the accession of Queen Anne, the latter had been named for the appointments of Captain-General of the plantations of America, and Governor of Jamaica, but owing to a remonstrance of the Duke of Marlborough, that it was unadvisable to confide such important trusts to a man whose temper was so uncertain, and whose passions were so head strong, the Government excused themselves from fulfilling their intentions. The Duke's share in this transaction not improbably rankled in the mind of Peterborough; for though we still find him corresponding in friendly terms with the Duchess of Marlborough, yet, not long afterwards, he openly opposed the measures of the Duke in parliament, and latterly is said to have spoken of him with contempt. Generally speaking, the animosities of the Duchess of Marlborough were those of her husband, and, consequently, the seeds of dissension were no sooner sown between Peterborough and her lord, than the hero of Barcelona became an object of the most virulent abuse. Her invectives are, on all occasions, amusing from their cordiality; and in the case of her old friend, Lord Peterborough, are not a little curious. Speaking of him, conjointly with Lord Rivers,* she says, -"It is hardly worth while to mention two lords, who, being discontented that favours and rewards were not heaped upon them by the ministry, became mere tools to promote the designs of their enemies. The one was Lord Rivers, a man scandalous and vile in his character to a very low degree, of no better reputation than a common cheat or pickpocket, having robbed his own father, and gone under the name of * Richard Savage, fourth Earl Rivers. He married Penelope, daughter of John Downs, Esq. of Wardley, in Lancashire, and died, without leaving male issue, in 1712. On the death of his kinsman and successor, John, fifth Earl Rivers, the earldom became extinct. Tyburn Dick for many years. The other was Lord Peterborough, a man who, to the same vileness of soul, had joined a sort of knight-errantry, that made up a very odd sort of composition; one, who had wasted his fortune and worn out his credit, and had nothing left but so much resolution and so little honour, as made him capable of anything they had to put upon him."* Even after the death of Queen Anne, when the interests of Peterborough and her husband no longer clashed, and when both of these celebrated men were treated with equal indifference by the new monarch, the Duchess expresses herself not a little provoked at the Earl entering her drawingroom with the same ease and unconcernedness, as if their interests had ever been the same, and as if he had never been the opponent of her illustrious lord. For instance, on one of his early letters to her, we find the following very curious endorsement in her own hand-writing: "This Lord made speeches against the Duke of Marlborough in parliament, when he served my Lord Oxford's Abigail, and since the Queen's death he comes to me and talks as if he had always been of our interest and of our opinion." It would seem, by this passage, that the rancour of the Duchess originated quite as much in his having espoused the cause of Mrs. Masham, as in his having been the maligner of the Duke. To have been the enemy * Marlborough Correspondence, vol. ii, p. 137. VOL. II. of her husband might have been forgiven; but to have been the confidant of her detested rival, was, in the mind of the acrimonious Duchess, a crime the most heinous that could possibly have been committed. An anecdote is recorded of Lord Peterborough, which, while it displays the quickness of his wit, shows how ready he was to exercise it at the expense of his illustrious contemporary, the Duke of Marlborough. At the time when the latter was in the height of his unpopularity, a mob, mistaking Lord Peterborough for the Duke, gathered rather tumultuously round his chair, and began to threaten him with personal violence. Gentlemen," said the Earl, "I can convince you, for two reasons, that I am not the Duke of Marlborough. In the first place, I have only five guineas in my pocket; and, in the second, they are heartily at your service." 66 In a letter, dated the 23rd of January, 1697, from James Vernon, Secretary of State to King William, to the Duke of Shrewsbury, there is an amusing account of one of Lord Peterborough's early adventures: "Sir John Talbot," says Vernon, "came to me last night, upon a very remarkable occasion which he had in the morning communicated to my Lord Keeper: and it is thus:-One Talbot tells him he has had a pretty long acquaintance with one Brown, whom he knew a student in the Temple, where his father made him reasonable allowance, till his estate came to be forfeited; and since that time, he has lived by play, sharping, and a little on the highway. This man, with three or four more, set upon my Lord Monmouth last summer. The account he gives of it is, that they took from him his hat, sword, periwig, a ring he had on his finger, and six shillings in money, which was all he had. "My Lord, making them a compliment, that by their behaviour they looked like gentlemen, and to take that course only out of necessity, and therefore desired to know how he might place ten guineas upon them. They immediately gave him all his things again, except the six shillings which he would not take. The guard from Chelsea college coming to the hedge-side about that time, and firing upon them, they told my Lord they should be obliged to mischief him, if he did not call to the guard that there were none but friends, which he did, and bid his coach drive on. "Some time after this, Brown made my Lord a visit and told him his errand. My Lord asked him, how he durst venture himself in coming thither. He returned my Lord his compliment, that he knew he was a man of honour, he came with assurance of what he had said to them, and those who were necessitated to lead his life ran great dangers elsewhere. My Lord gave him a guinea or two, and encouraged his coming again, and after that he had frequent meetings with his Lordship at some mistress's lodgings."* * Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III. vol. i. pp. 179. 180. |