The duke of Marlborough set out for Franckfort, where he conferred with the electors of Mentz, Hanover, and Palatine, about the operations of the next campaign: then he returned to the Hague, and having concerted the necessary measures with the deputies of the states-general, embarked for England in the beginning of November.
A PArTY FORMED AGAINST MARLBOROUGH.
The queen's private favour was now shifted to a new object.

The duchess of Marlborough was supplanted by Mrs.Masham, her own kinswoman, whom she had rescued from indigence and obscurity.

This favourite succeeded to that ascendancy over the mind of her sovereign which the duchess had formerly possessed.

She was more humble, pliable, and obliging than her first patroness, who had played the tyrant, and thwarted the queen in some of her most respected maxims.

Her majesty's prepossession in favour of the tories and high-churchmen was no longer insolently condemned and violently opposed.