Page:The Wentworth Papers 1715-1739.djvu/25

 has desired to be excused from going which is my Lord Cutts, another that is here is very indifferent, so that I hope that it may not be disposed of till they know your desires.

" I desire you wou'd send to Coll. Ross, that he may take care to send you your two new troops, which I am very glad you desire, for I believe I shall be obliged very spedily to send for you to join the army. — I am with truth, &c.,

"MARLBOROUGH."

A few days after the date of this letter he receives signed orders from the duke to join the train of artillery under Colonel Charles Ross at Bois-le-duc with his Royal Regiment of Dragoons, and march with them to the Grave — by|" the Grave" being meant a fortified town in Holland of that name, and not the place of interment naturally suggesting itself to most readers in such a connexion. Lord Raby took an active part in this year's campaign, had his horse shot under him at Helchteren, and at the storming of the citadel of Liege lost his youngest brother Allen, who had been one of the late king's pages. We find nothing more in the Wentworth correspondence relating to Jamaica, but Luttrell in his "Diary of State Affairs," under date 1702, Sept. 8, writes, " I am told Major- General Ingoldsby has declined the government of Jamaica, and that her majesty has given it to Lord Raby," and on Sept. 12 he states that his commission to be governor is passing the seals. If this were true, the intentions of the queen were soon afterwards changed, for upon his return from Flanders in November, "the Duke of Marlborough," to quote what appears to be Lord Raby s own account of the matter — "having tried in vain to persuade him to go on a mission to the King of Prussia (who urgently desired to have him again at his court), carried him one morning to the queen and said, ' Madam, you know how necessary it is to our service to have Lord Raby at Berlin ; I cannot prevail with him to go, but I hope he will not deny your majesty, if you desire it of him.' The queen pressed it in the most obliging manner, and assured him she would take it so kindly of him ; she promised him to take care that

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