Mary's life was a much better life than his, and quite as good a life as her sister's.

That William would have issue seemed unlikely.

But it was generally expected that he would soon die.
His widow might marry again, and might leave children who would succeed her.

In these circumstances Marlborough might well think that he had very little interest in maintaining that settlement of the Crown which had been made by the Convention.

Nothing was so likely to serve his purpose as confusion, civil war, another revolution, another abdication, another vacancy of the throne.