Marlborough was, not without reason, the object of their bitterest hatred.

In his behaviour on a field of battle malice itself could find little to censure: but there were other parts of his conduct which presented a fair mark for obloquy.

Avarice is rarely the vice of a young man: it is rarely the vice of a great man: but Marlborough was one of the few who have, in the bloom of youth, loved lucre more than wine or women, and who have, at the height of greatness, loved lucre more than power or fame.

All the precious gifts which nature had lavished on him he valued chiefly for what they would fetch.

At twenty he made money of his beauty and his vigour.