What shall we say of the hero of the great victory thus celebrated? Perhaps Thackeray has given the best description. He says: "Before the greatest obstacle or the most trival ceremony; before a hundred thousand men {456}drawn in battalia, or a peasant slaughtered at the door of his burning hovel; before a carouse of German lords, or a monarch's court, or a cottage table where his plans were laid, or an enemy's battery vomiting flame and death, and strewing corpses round about him,--he was always cold, calm, resolute, like fate. He performed a treason or a court-bow; he told a falsehood as black as Styx as easily as he paid a compliment or spoke about the weather. He was as calm at the mouth of the cannon as at the door of a drawing-room. He would cringe to a shoe-black or he would flatter a minister or a monarch; be haughty, be humble, threaten, repent, weep, grasp your hand or stab you whenever he saw occasion. But yet those of the army who knew him best, and had suffered most from him, admired him most of all, and had perfect confidence in him as the first captain of the world." After the Blenheim victory the enthusiasm for the duke was very great; even those who hated him and those whom he had cheated were ready to greet him with frantic cheers. The queen informed the house of commons that she desired to present the palace and grounds of Woodstock to the great hero and his heirs forever, and the act was passed a few weeks later. Her majesty ordered a portrait in miniature to be painted of the duke, which was sur-rounded by brilliants valued at eight thousand pounds, and the picture itself was covered with a diamond instead of glass. This magnificent gift was presented to the Duchess of Marlborough as a souvenir of the victory of Blenheim. It need scarcely be said that while her husband stood so high in the royal favor, the influence of the Duchess of Marlborough remained unabated, and she compelled the queen to appoint all her officers of government from the {457}Whig ranks. When her majesty hesitated, the upstart tyrant would vulgarly exclaim: "Lord, madam! it _must_ be so!" Thus she secured for her friend, William Cowper, the high post of keeper of the Great Seal. The privilege of disposing of the church livings had belonged to the sovereign, but Lord Keeper Cowper now claimed it, and subsequently it was taken out of the hands of the crown entirely. The Church of England was never in greater danger of destruction than during Queen Anne's reign, because most of the dignitaries had been connected with some species of dissent. The prince consort was a Dissenter; but, worst of all, the violent duchess, her majesty's favorite and ruler, headed a strong band of free-thinkers, who hated the church.