shall do. I would not be importunate to my Lord Duke, and I would not live in despair. Let my Lord but say whether he ever thinks of me, or what he designs to do for me, how long he would have me continue here, and if he thinks me so arrantly good for nothing that I never could be able to make any figure in my country, and whether amongst so many servants so great a man as he must have, I may not be thought capable to be one. England is upon such a foot that the greatest and best of men can't have too many friends. My great-uncle, my Lord Strafford, left it as a maxim to our family, that an Englishman can't have too many friends, and that people in power should not disoblige the least groom, since no man can tell how things may turn, ' for,' said he, at the time of his trial, ' Lord, how many do I see who I thought most insignificant, who now sits the heaviest upon me.' .... I must conclude with protesting that if I am so unfortunate as that at last, I must find myself baulked of all my hopes, after spending my youth, hazarding daily my life, losing my brothers and not bettering my fortune by the service, I can retire contentedly, and live upon what my birth gave me, even if I should lose what the late king, my great and glorious master, gave me ; and, pray believe me, the uncertainty of my circumstances now makes me more uneasy than the being reduced to live at last upon what I have can make me then, since I am satisfied I have not merited either mistrust or neglect from any one, espe- cially from my Lord Duke of Marlborough, whom I have ever truly loved and honoured "
In another letter to Cadogan, written three days later, he points out that Lord Herbert is just dead, who was a Com- missioner of Trade, " which is an employment, has been given to ministers abroad, for Lord Lexington and Mr. Stepney had it whilst they were at Vienna " ; and he expresses his be- lief that Marlborough might easily get this for him. Cadogan's reply to this impassioned appeal was guarded enough : — •
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