But, if a design was splendid, Mordaunt seldom inquired whether it were practicable.

His life was a wild romance made up of mysterious intrigues, both political and amorous, of violent and rapid changes of scene and fortune, and of victories resembling those of Amadis and Launcelot rather than those of Luxemburg and Eugene.
The episodes interspersed in this strange story were of a piece with the main plot.

Among them were midnight encounters with generous robbers, and rescues of noble and beautiful ladies from ravishers.

Mordaunt, having distinguished himself by the eloquence and audacity with which, in the House of Lords, he had opposed the court, repaired, soon after the prorogation, to the Hague, and strongly recommended an immediate descent on England.

He had persuaded himself that it would be as easy to surprise three great kingdoms as he long afterwards found it to surprise Barcelona.