the possible succession of James II.'s son, the Chevalier de St.
George, had never been out of his mind.

The death of the Electress Sophia brought her son George to the
throne. The Whigs triumphed, and Lord Bolingbroke was politically
ruined. He was dismissed from office before the end of the month.
On the 26th of March, 1715, he escaped to France, in disguise of a
valet to the French messenger La Vigne. A Secret Committee of the
House of Commons was, a few days afterwards, appointed to examine
papers, and the result was Walpole's impeachment of Bolingbroke. He
was, in September, 1715, in default of surrender, attainted of high
treason, and his name was erased from the roll of peers. His own
account of his policy will be found in this letter to his friend Sir
William Windham, in which the only weak feature is the bitterness of
Bolingbroke's resentment against Harley.

When he went in exile to France, Bolingbroke remained only a few
days in Paris before retiring to St. Clair, near Vienne, in
Dauphiny. His Letter to Windham tells how he became Secretary of
State to the Pretender, and how little influence he could obtain
over the Jacobite counsels. The hopeless Rebellion of 1715, in
Scotland, Bolingbroke laboured in vain to delay until there might be
some chance of success. The death of Louis XIV., on the 1st of
September in that year, had removed the last prop of a falling
cause.

Some part of Bolingbroke's forfeited property was returned to his
wife, who pleaded in vain for the reversal of his attainder.
Bolingbroke was ill-used by the Pretender and abused by the
Jacobites. He had been writing philosophical "Reflections upon