9
Marlborough to Godolphin, 26th May and 2d June 1710.
10
Marlborough to the Duchess, 12th June 1710. Coxe, iv. 197.
11
Marlborough to Godolphin, 26th June 1710.
12
13
Marlborough to Godolphin, 29th August 1710.
14
Coxe, iv. 343, 344.
15
"I am of opinion that, after the siege of Aire, I shall have it in my power to attack Calais. This is a conquest which would very much prejudice France, and ought to have a good effect for the Queen's service in England; but I see so much malice levelled at me, that I am afraid it is not safe for me to make any proposition, lest, if it should not succeed, my enemies should turn it to my disadvantage."
16
"Till within these few days, during these
17
"Take it we must, for we cannot draw the guns from the batteries. But God knows when we shall have it: night and day our poor men are up to the knees in mud and water."
18
Marlborough to Godolphin, 13th November 1710.
19
Cunningham, ii. 305.
20
Marlborough to the Duchess, 26th July 1710. Coxe, iv. 299.
21
Marlborough to the Duchess, 25th October and 24th November 1710. Coxe, iv. 351, 352.
22
Bolingbroke's
23
"I beg you to lose no time in sending me, to the Hague, the opinion of our friend mentioned in my letter; for I would be governed by the Whigs, from whose principle and interest I will never depart. Whilst they had a majority in the House of Commons, they might suspect it might be my interest; but now they must do me the justice to see that it is my inclination and principle which makes me act."
24
Coxe, iv. 405.
25
"Though I never thought of troubling your Majesty again in this manner, yet the circumstances I see my Lord Marlborough in, and the apprehension I have that he cannot live six months, if there is not some end put to his sufferings on my account, make it impossible for me to resist doing every thing in my power to ease him."
26
Smollett, c. x. § 20.
27
Marlborough to the Duchess, 24th May 1711. Coxe, v. 417-431.
28
Eugene to Marlborough, 23d April 1710; Marlborough to St John, 29th April 1710. Coxe, vi. 16.
29
Lidiard, ii. 426. Coxe, vi. 21. 22.
30
"I see my Lord Rochester has gone where we all must follow. I believe my journey will be hastened by the many vexations I meet with. I am sure I wish well to my country, and if I could do good, I should think no pains too great; but I find myself decay so very fast, that from my heart and soul I wish the Queen and my country a peace by which I might have the advantage of enjoying a little quiet, which is my greatest ambition."
31
Marlborough to St John, 14th June 1711.
32
33
34
"The Duke of Marlborough has no communication from home on this affair; I suppose he will have none from the Hague."
35
Coxe, vi. 52-54.
36
Kane's
37
Kane's
38
Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 6th August 1711.
39
"No person takes a greater interest in your concerns than myself; your highness has penetrated into the
40
"My Lord Stair opened to us the general steps which your grace intended to take, in order to pass the lines in one part or another. It was, however, hard to imagine, and too much to hope, that a plan, which consisted of so many parts, wherein so many different corps were to co-operate personally together, should entirely succeed, and no one article fail of what your grace had projected. I most heartily congratulate your grace on this great event, of which I think no more needs be said, than that you have obtained, without losing a man, such an advantage, as we should have been glad to have purchased with the loss of several thousand lives."
41
Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 10th August 1711.
42
Coxe, vi. 71-80; Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 14th, 17th, and 20th August 1711;
43
Marlborough to Mr Secretary St John, 14th Sept. 1711.
44
45
There were special reasons for the mutual hatred of these two brothers. One of the Amir's wives was a lady of the royal family of Sadozai, who, when the decline of that dynasty commenced, had attracted the attention of Sultan Mohammed Khan, and a correspondence took place between them. She prepared to leave Kabul to be married to him, when the Amir, who was also smitten with her charms, forcibly seized her and compelled her to become his wife. This at once created, and has ever since maintained, a fatal animosity between the brothers; and Sultan Mohammed Khan has often been heard to say, that nothing would afford him greater pleasure, even at breathing his last, than to drink the blood of the Amir. Such is the nature of the brotherly feeling now existing between them. – See