Historical Characters in the Reign of Queen AnneOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
History
Historical Characters in the Reign of Queen Anne
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Addison, Joseph, 1672-1719; Anne, Queen of Great Britain, 1665-1714; Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731; Swift, Jonathan, 1667-1745
Anne was but recovering from the illness that followed her confinement,
and with which her sister’s angry visit was supposed to have something
to do, when another blow fell upon the band of friends. Marlborough was
suddenly arrested and sent to the Tower. There was reason enough perhaps
for his previous disgrace in the secret relations with St.-Germain which
he was known to have resumed; but the charge afterward made was a purely
fictitious one, and he and the other great personages involved had
little difficulty in proving this innocence. The correspondence which
took place while Lady Marlborough was in town with her husband on this
occasion reveals Anne very clearly in her affectionate simplicity.
I hear Lord Marlborough is sent to the Tower; and though I am
certain they have nothing against him, and expected by your letter
it would be so, yet I was struck when I was told it; for methinks
it is a dismal thing to have one’s friends sent to that place. I
have a thousand melancholy thoughts, and cannot help fearing they
hinder you from coming to me; though how they can do that without
making you a prisoner, I cannot imagine. I am just told by pretty
good hands that as soon as the wind turns westerly there will be a
guard set upon the prince and me. If you hear there is any such
thing designed and that ’tis easy to you, pray let me see you
before the wind changes: for afterward one does not know whether
they will let one have opportunities of speaking to one another.
But let them do what they please, nothing shall ever vex me, so I
can have the satisfaction of seeing dear Mrs. Freeman; and I swear
I would live on bread and water between four walls with her without
repining; for so long as you continue kind, nothing can ever be a
real mortification to your faithful Mrs. Morley, who wishes she may
never enjoy a moment’s happiness in this world or the next if ever
she proves false to you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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