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12. The Queen then poured out her griefs to Mrs. Masham, a poor cousin of the Duchess. This lady brought in secretly a gentleman named Harley, to whom the Queen gave her confidence. He was a Tory, and was inclined to pity the state of France, and to think the war had gone far enough, and Anne was ready to do anything to be free of the Duchess. So Marlborough, in the height of his glory, was forbidden to do any more, peace was made, and as the Archduke Charles lost his elder brother and became Emperor, he gave up his claims on Spain, and the War of the Spanish Succession was ended by the Peace of Utrecht, in the year 1713. Marlborough was most ungratefully treated, he was accused of having misused the public money, and was obliged to go into exile until Queen Anne's reign was over.

Persons: Queen Anne-Prince George of DenmarkSophia, Electress of Hanover-Her son George-Philip IV. of Spain-The Archduke Charles-The Pretender-The Duke of Marlborough-Prince Eugene of Savoy---The Earl of Peterborough-The Earl of Galway-The Duke of Berwick-Mrs. Masham-Harley.

Dates: Act of Settlement, 1701-Death of William III., 1702-Battle of Blenheim and Capture of Gibraltar, 1704— Peace of Utrecht, 1713.

XXXII. THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM.

It was a summer evening,

Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he, before his cottage door,
Was sitting in the sun,
While by him sported on the green,
His little grandchild, Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin

Roll something large and round,
Which he beside the rivulet,
In playing there had found.

He came to ask what he had found,
That was so large and smooth and round.

Old Kaspar took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by,

And then the old man shook his head,

And with a natural sigh,

"Tis some poor fellow's skull,' said he,

'Who fell in the great victory.'

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153

'I find them in the garden,

For there's many hereabout, And often, when I go to plough,

The ploughshare turns them out:
For many thousand men,' said he,
'Were slain in that great victory.'

'Now tell us what 'twas all about,'
Young Peterkin, he cries,
And little Wilhelmine looks up
With wonder-waiting eyes;
'Now tell us all about the war,
And what they fought each other for.'

'It was the English,' Kaspar cried,
'Who put the French to rout,
But what they fought each other for
I could not well make out,
But everybody said,' quoth he,
'It was a famous victory.

'My father lived at Blenheim then,

Yon little stream hard by,

They burnt his dwelling to the ground,

And he was forced to fly,

So with his wife and child he fled,

Nor had he where to lay his head.

'With fire and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide,

And many an ailing mother there

And new-born baby died.

But things like that you know must be
At every famous victory.

'They say it was a shocking sight,

After the fight was won,

For many thousand bodies there,

Lay rotting in the sun.

But things like that you know must be
After each famous victory.

'Great praise the Duke of Malbro' won,
And our good Prince Eugene.'
'Why 'twas a very wicked thing,'

Said little Wilhelmine.

'Nay, nay, my little girl,' quoth he,

'It was a famous victory.

'And everybody praised the Duke,
Who the great fight did win!'
'But what good came of it at last?'
Quoth little Peterkin.

'Nay, that I cannot tell,' said he,
'But 'twas a famous victory.'

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

XXXIII. THE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND.

1. WHILE the War of the Spanish Succession was going on the Queen's ministers were Whigs. In the year 1707 the Union of England and Scotland

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took place. Ever since James VI. of Scotland had become King of England, 105 years before, the two countries had had the same King, and yet they had been separate kingdoms, each with a Parliament of its own; one meeting at Edinburgh, and the other in London.

2. By the Union the two Parliaments were joined together, so that the Scottish members for counties and towns had to come and sit at Westminster in the English House of Commons, and the Scottish peers chose sixteen of their number to represent them in the English House of Lords. The Union was a very good thing for Scotland, which has prospered greatly ever since, but at first many persons disliked it extremely, and it made many Scots become Jacobites in the hope of getting a king and kingdom to themselves.

3. When Queen Anne had quarrelled with the Duchess of Marlborough and had Tories about her instead of Whigs, the Jacobites began to have hopes; for the Queen was left all alone in the world. Her husband died in 1708, and she began to yearn towards her brother in France; and would never invite her cousin, the Electress Sophia, to England, much to the disappointment of that lady, who reckoned much on being a Queen. However, she died the year before Queen Anne.

4. Many very able men lived in this reign. Sir Christopher Wren had planned St. Paul's Cathedral and many churches and public buildings, instead of those burnt down in the Fire of London,