A confidential friend of the Duchess, Mr. Mainwaring, remarks of her, in one of his letters, that she was totally deficient in that "part of craft which Mr. Hobbes very prettily calls crooked wisdom."[47] Apt, as she herself expresses it, "to tumble out her mind," her openness and honesty were appreciated, when at an advanced age, and after she had run the career of five courts--by that experienced judge, the Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who often presumed upon the venerable Duchess's candour in telling her unpalatable truths, which none but the honest could have borne to hear. It was this uprightness and singleness of mind which rendered the Duchess unwilling to believe in the duplicity and the influence of her cousin. Warned of it by Mr. Mainwaring, it was not until she found in the Queen a defender of Mrs. Masham's secret marriage, that the Duchess was roused into suspicion. It was then that she communicated her conviction to Lord Godolphin and to Marlborough, and besought their advice and assistance. [47] Private Correspondence, vol. i., p. 105. The Duke had just then prepared measures for carrying on the war, and had completed every arrangement for his voyage into Holland; the only thing which detained him in England was, says Cunningham, "the quarrel among the women about the court." He desired his often-offended Duchess "to put an end to those controversies, and to avoid all occasions of suspicion and disgust; and not to suffer herself to grow insolent upon the favour of fortune; "otherwise," said he, "I shall hardly be able hereafter to excuse your fault, or to justify my own actions, however meritorious." To which the Duchess replied, "I will take care of those things, so that you need not be in any fear about me; but whoever shall think to remove me out of the Queen's favour, let them take care lest they remove themselves." It was not long before Marlborough perceived that the Duchess was not mistaken in her apprehensions; nor before he became painfully aware of the fact, that services of the greatest magnitude are often not to be weighed against slights and petty provocations. Queen Anne, however, had some pangs of conscience, in spite of her joy at being emancipated from the thraldom of her haughty Mistress of the Robes, in ill-treating the great general who had filled her reign with glory; but the uninterrupted gossip which she delighted now to indulge in with her waiting-woman compensated for all. Soon after Marlborough had won the sanguinary battle of Malplaquet, the celebrated trial of the noted Doctor Sacheverell took place; on which occasion an incident occurred which completed the downfall of the Duchess. The prosecution of Sacheverell had been advised by the Duke, lest he should preach him and his party out of the kingdom. CHAPTER III. SUCCESS OF THE CABAL, ETC.