of the greatest man of his age to dispute with his ungrateful country
about 9,000£. Better would it have been had he paid the debt at once;
for the sum was not such as to put him to the smallest inconvenience,
and posterity would have more than recompensed the loss by the judgment
which it would have passed on the entire transaction. In spite, however,
of these multiplied sources of disturbance, it does not appear that the
latter years of this great man's life were spent unhappily. Frequent
returns of illness he doubtless had, each of which left him more and
more enfeebled in mind and body; but his intervals of ease seem to have
been passed in the society of those who were well disposed to cheat him,
as far as they could, into a forgetfulness of his fallen condition. He
played much at chess, whist, piquet, and ombre; he took exercise for
awhile on horseback, latterly, on account of weakness, in his carriage;
he even walked, when at Blenheim, unattended about his own grounds, and
took great delight in the performance of private theatricals. We have
the best authority for asserting, likewise, that he was never, till
within a short time of his death, either indisposed or incapable of
conversing freely with his friends. Whether in London, at Blenheim,
Holywell, or Windsor Lodge (and he latterly moved from place to place
with a sort of restless frequency), his door was always open to the
visits of his numerous and sincere admirers; all of whom he received
without ceremony, and treated with peculiar kindness.

"In this manner Marlborough continued to drag on an existence, which,
when contrasted with the tenour of years gone by, scarcely deserves to
be accounted other than vegetation. In 1720, he added several codicils
to his will, and 'put his house in order;' and in November, 1721, he
made his appearance in the house of lords, where, however, he took no
prominent part in the business under discussion. He had spent the winter
too in London, according to his usual habits, and was recently returned