From the time that she had known of the distress of her humble relatives, she had, as she alleges in her letter to Bishop Burnet, “helped them in every way, without any motive but charity and relation, having never known their father:”[93] nor did the peculiar manner of the humble bedchamber woman rouse the pride or the suspicions of the mistress of the robes. “She had,” writes the Duchess, recalling circumstances, possibly, at the moment unobserved, “a shy, reserved behaviour towards me, always avoided entering into free conversation with me, and made excuses when I wanted her to go abroad with me. And what I thought ill-breeding, or surly honesty, has since proved to be a design deeply laid, as she had always the artifice to hide very carefully the power which she had over the Queen.”[94] Affairs were in this state when a rumour reached the Duchess, of her cousin’s marriage with a gentleman named Masham, whom the Duchess had likewise promoted to a place in the Queen’s household. This took place in the summer of 1707, when the battle of Ramillies had propped up the declining favour of Marlborough, and consequently repaired, in some degree, the breaches of confidence between the Queen and the Duchess. The Duchess, although naturally startled at the intelligence, acted in the direct and candid manner which strong minds can alone adopt on such occasions. She went to her cousin, and asked if the report were true. Mrs. Masham acknowledged the fact, and begged to be forgiven for having concealed it.[95] It was not in the power of her artful relative, nor of her tool, the Queen, much longer to blind the woman whom they had, with true vulgarity of mind, gloried in deceiving.[96] The Duchess, in an unpublished manuscript explanation of her conduct, addressed to Mr. Hutchinson, describes her incredulity upon the subject of the baseness of one, to whom she had acted in “the capacity of a mother;” whom she had preserved from starving; and who repaid her bounty by seizing every opportunity of undermining her benefactress.[97] Mrs. Masham could not assign any adequate reason for the concealment of the marriage, for it was at once suitable in point of rank, and prudent in respect to circumstances. Mr. Samuel Masham was the eighth son of Sir Francis Masham, a Baronet, and was reputed to be a gentleman of honour, and of worth. Already had he risen from the post of page to that of equerry in Prince George’s household, and from the office of equerry had been promoted to that of groom of the bedchamber. The Duchess had herself, as it has been stated, assisted in his elevation; for it was at that time understood that no person who was not agreeable to the Marlborough family, or supposed to be, in particular, acceptable to the Duchess, could be raised to any office of importance.[98] Hence Mr. Masham could not be objectionable to the Duchess as a match for her cousin, except on one ground—he was a relation of Mr. Harley.