"But I thought," Vernon proceeds, "Mr.Montague was too aspiring to stoop to any thing below the height he was in, and that he least considered profit." This feeling was no doubt shared by many of the friends of the ministry.

It was plain that Montague was preparing a retreat for himself.

This flinching of the captain, just on the eve of a perilous campaign, naturally disheartened the whole army.

It deserves to be remarked that, more than eighty years later, another great parliamentary leader was placed in a very similar situation.

The younger William Pitt held in 1784 the same offices which Montague had held in 1698.