THE TRUE MAID OF HONOUR. left behind, remembering even her domestic seri vants ; and enjoining him to give certain legacies to her relations and friends, whom she particularised. Years crept by; her husbandbecame the celebrated diplomat and exalted noble, and rose to the highest honours of the state, but his regret was constant and enduring. He never married again, surviving his beloved wife thirty-four years ; and died Sep- tember, 1712, at a seat of the Duke of Marl- borough's, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Her boy, Francis, grew up, and married the lovely Henrietta Churchill, eldest daughter and co-heiress of the Duke of Marlborough, to whom, in her own right, passed the dukedom of Marlborough. It is interesting to notice that the name andblood of Margaret Godolphin have passed into two illustrious houses,-that of the Duke of Leeds and the family of Spencer ; for, by the death of the only son of Francis Lord Godolphin and Henrietta Churchill, the honours of the house of Marlborough passed to the family of Spencer from the descendants of Margaret Godolphin ; and by the marriage of their daughter Mary to Thomas, fourth Duke of Leeds, that illustrious house claims descent from our gentle Margaret. " But," to use the words of the Bishop of Oxford, " it was not for gentle descent or noble alliance that Margaret Godolphin was to be most remarked, or best deserved remembrance. Rather did she add distinction to an ancient line, and transmit to all 43
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