Note 167 — THE GODOLPHINS OF GODOLPHIN,

It is curious and instructive to notice how Marlborough himself had suffered from the attacks of his assailants. Green, in his 'Short History of the English People,' says: 'In the bitter moments before his fall, he bade Godolphin burn some querulous letters which the persecution of his opponents had wrung from him. 'My desire is that the world may continue in their error of thinking me a happy man, for I think it better to be envied than pitied.' Yet he could write philosophically enough, and in somewhat similar vein, from Tirlemount, to his irritated Duchess, who had been deeply stung by one of the many libellous pamphlets which were now making their appearance: 'The best way of putting an end to that villany is not to appear concerned. The best of men and women in all ages have been ill-used. If we can be so happy as to behave ourselves so as to have no reason to reproach ourselves, we may then despise what rage and faction do.'