whose name was Churchill, and who was made Duke of Marlborough as a reward for the great victories which he won for England. Queen Anne had known him all her life. He had been a page to her father James before he was king, and had been the tutor of her own son. Besides, his wife had been her dearest friend ever since she was a little girl. Lady Marlborough was tall and handsome, and very clever. The queen loved her devotedly. 3. So Marlborough went off to the wars, and he bade his wife good-bye by the water-side before he went into his ship; and afterwards he sent her a letter, in which he said he would have given his life to come back from the ship and kiss her once more, but that he dared not, because he knew that he should not be able to tear himself away from her a second time. 4. Lord Marlborough and his army fought many battles against the King of France, and won many victories. He marched through country after country, and at last won the greatest victory of all at Blenheim, on the river Danube, almost a thousand miles. away from England. It lasted from noon till nightfall. Numbers of men were killed and wounded. Neither side would give way, and neither side could get the victory. At last Marlborough gathered his cavalry on the top of a slope and charged down more desperately than ever upon the French cavalry, so they could no longer stand against him. Their line broke, and the English dashed in and cut them to pieces. Marlborough pushed on, and drove them into the river. The victory was won; and Marlborough quickly despatched a messenger to carry the glorious news to England. 5. Then there was great rejoicing in England. Queen Anne commanded a splendid palace to be built for Marlborough, and she called it Blenheim, in memory of this terrible battle. 46. PRINCE CHARLIE, THE YOUNG PRETENDER 1. Queen Anne had children, but they all died, and the old friends of her father, King James, began to hope that on her death the Pretender would come over from France, and that the Stuarts would reign again in England. 2. But the English were determined that they would trust the Stuarts no more. So they decided in Parliament, when Queen Anne's last son died, that upon her death they would take for their king George, Prince of Hanover, who, although a German, was descended in a direct line from James I. 3. When the time came, the Pretender's friends, who were called the Jacobites, were all ready to make him king; but their plot was defeated, and George of Hanover, and his son and his descendants after him, have ruled over England till the present day. 4. However, the Jacobites were constantly trying to restore the Stuarts. The Roman Catholics wished to have them as kings, because they were of their own religion; and the Scotch especially longed to have a king of their old royal house to reign over them. 5. So, when King George's son, who was called King George the Second, was on the throne, the Jacobites sent word to Prince Charlie, the son of the old Pretender, to say that if he would land in Scotland they would crown him king, and fight for him till they had driven the Hanoverian princes out of England. 6. The French king fitted out a fleet to bring him over, but it was driven back by a storm; so in the end Prince Charlie came over with only seven friends, and landed in Scotland. Then the brave Highlanders all joined him, and they marched southwards towards England. 7. At first the English army was taken by surprise, and Prince Charlie and his Highlanders came on to Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to Carlisle, and from Carlisle to Derby. But scarcely an Englishman joined them. And at last the courage even of the Highlanders failed them, for they found themselves with very little money or gunpowder in the middle of a strange country. So they all turned and fled back to Scotland; and Prince Charlie, who was as brave as a lion, went with them, very sad and disappointed. this time King George's army was all in readiness, and they pursued Prince Charlie wherever he went, and at last destroyed his army utterly at the battle of Culloden. Then Prince Charlie fled for his life, as King Charles the Second had before him. He galloped away all through the night, and took refuge in an island on the coast. By 8. But the English heard he was there. Their ships sailed round and round the island to prevent his escape, while the soldiers landed to hunt the whole island for him; and nobody dared to help him or give him shelter. However, a lady called Flora Macdonald came to the prince's rescue. She brought him women's clothes, and dressed him up as her maidservant, and then they got into a boat together, and rowed away to another island. 9. Flora Macdonald was taken prisoner, but not till Prince Charlie was far out of reach. Sometimes he hid amongst the mountains, sometimes in caves with robbers; but one day a French ship came near the shore, and Prince Charlie got on board and escaped safely to France. 47. THE EARL OF CHATHAM AND HIS HELPERS. 1. King George II., whom Prince Charlie thus tried to drive out of England, was not a great man himself, but he was served by some of the greatest Englishmen that have ever lived. 2. The French and the English were constantly at war; for the French king was always scheming to make himself more and more powerful, and the English feared that some day King George's possessions in Hanover would be taken from him, and all their own colonies also, and that in the end the French king would send over an army and set up the Stuarts again in England. |