From the time that she had known of the distress of her humble relatives, she had, as she alleges in her letter to Bishop Burnet, “helped them in every way, without any motive but charity and relation, having never known their father:”[[93]] nor did the peculiar manner of the humble bedchamber woman rouse the pride or the suspicions of the mistress of the robes. “She had,” writes the Duchess, recalling circumstances, possibly, at the moment unobserved, “a shy, reserved behaviour towards me, always avoided entering into free conversation with me, and made excuses when I wanted her to go abroad with me. And what I thought ill-breeding, or surly honesty, has since proved to be a design deeply laid, as she had always the artifice to hide very carefully the power which she had over the Queen.”[[94]]
Affairs were in this state when a rumour reached the Duchess, of her cousin’s marriage with a gentleman named Masham, whom the Duchess had likewise promoted to a place in the Queen’s household. This took place in the summer of 1707, when the battle of Ramillies had propped up the declining favour of Marlborough, and consequently repaired, in some degree, the breaches of confidence between the Queen and the Duchess. The Duchess, although naturally startled at the intelligence, acted in the direct and candid manner which strong minds can alone adopt on such occasions. She went to her cousin, and asked if the report were true. Mrs. Masham acknowledged the fact, and begged to be forgiven for having concealed it.[[95]]
It was not in the power of her artful relative, nor of her tool, the Queen, much longer to blind the woman whom they had, with true vulgarity of mind, gloried in deceiving.[[96]] The Duchess, in an unpublished manuscript explanation of her conduct, addressed to Mr. Hutchinson, describes her incredulity upon the subject of the baseness of one, to whom she had acted in “the capacity of a mother;” whom she had preserved from starving; and who repaid her bounty by seizing every opportunity of undermining her benefactress.[[97]]
Mrs. Masham could not assign any adequate reason for the concealment of the marriage, for it was at once suitable in point of rank, and prudent in respect to circumstances. Mr. Samuel Masham was the eighth son of Sir Francis Masham, a Baronet, and was reputed to be a gentleman of honour, and of worth. Already had he risen from the post of page to that of equerry in Prince George’s household, and from the office of equerry had been promoted to that of groom of the bedchamber. The Duchess had herself, as it has been stated, assisted in his elevation; for it was at that time understood that no person who was not agreeable to the Marlborough family, or supposed to be, in particular, acceptable to the Duchess, could be raised to any office of importance.[[98]] Hence Mr. Masham could not be objectionable to the Duchess as a match for her cousin, except on one ground—he was a relation of Mr. Harley.
The Duchess, notwithstanding that she felt she had reason to be offended with Mrs. Masham’s conduct, was willing to impute it to “want of breeding and bashfulness,” rather than to that deceptive and petty spirit which rejoices in mystery. She forgave and embraced her cousin, and wished her joy; and then, entering into conversation with her on other subjects, began in the most friendly manner to contrive how the bride might be accommodated with lodgings, by removing her sister into some apartments occupied by the Duchess. After this point was arranged, the Duchess, still deceived, inquired whether the Queen were informed of the marriage, and “very innocently” offered her services to acquaint her Majesty with the affair. Mrs. Masham, who had, says the Duchess, by this time learned the art of dissimulation pretty well, answered, with an untroubled mien, that the bedchamber women had already apprised the Queen of it,—hoping by that reply to prevent any further examination of the matter. The Duchess, all astonishment, and probably, though she does not acknowledge it, all fury, went directly to the Queen, and inquired why her Majesty had not been so kind as to tell her of her cousin’s marriage; putting her in mind of a favourite quotation from Montaigne, adopted by Anne, namely, that it was no breach of secrecy “to tell an intimate friend anything, because it was only like telling it to oneself.”[[99]]
“This,” to speak in the Duchess’s own words, “I said, I thought she herself ought to have told me of; but the only thing I was concerned at was, that this plainly showed a change in her Majesty towards me, as I had once before observed to her; when she was pleased to say, that it was not she that was changed, but me; and that if I was the same to her, she was sure she was so to me.” Upon this the Queen answered, with a great deal of earnestness, and without thinking to be upon her guard, “I believe I have spoken to her a hundred times to tell you of it, and she would not.”
This answer startled the Duchess very much; and she began to reflect on the incongruity of her Majesty’s two answers; the first asserting that she believed the bedchamber women had told her of Mrs. Masham’s marriage; the second, implying that Mrs. Masham and her Majesty had repeatedly held consultations upon the subject.
This reserve, and the evident collusion between the parties, roused the suspicions of the Duchess, and she instantly resolved to commence a strict examination into the relative position, and the ultimate end and object of the parties thus implicated in what she deemed a conspiracy against her power and peace. Fortunately for her biographers, she has left ample explanations, carefully preserved, of all those passages of her life which relate to her ultimate dismissal from the Queen’s service. In a letter which many years afterwards she is said to have addressed to Bishop Burnet, she gives a clear statement, which she corroborates by copies of all the correspondence which passed between herself and the Queen relative to the great affair of her life.
It was not long before the Duchess, on instituting an inquiry among her friends, discovered that the Queen had even gone herself secretly to her new favourite’s marriage in the “Scotch doctor’s chamber,” a circumstance which was discovered by a boy, who belonged to one of the under servants, and who saw her Majesty go thither alone.[[100]] The marriage had also been confided to several persons of distinction.
It was easy to be informed of that which every body but herself knew; and, in less than a week, the indignant Duchess discovered that her cousin was an “absolute favourite,” and that when the marriage was solemnised at Dr. Arbuthnott’s lodging, her Majesty had called for a round sum out of the privy purse. To this intelligence was added the still more startling information, that hours of confidential communication were daily passed by Mrs. Masham in the Queen’s apartments, whilst Prince George, who was now a confirmed invalid, was asleep; but who, in spite of the advantage taken of his slumbers, had been one of the illustrious confidants on this occasion.