years both King and Duke of York had been seeking her favors and so well-behaved that she had managed to discourage them both. Frances was one of Sir Richard five children of Jennings, and her young sister Sarah would, from time to time, visit her at court.

And this is where the extraordinary story of the Churchills actually begins.

When Churchill returned from Tangiers, the dashing 26-year-old officer fell passionately in love with young Sarah at first sight. She was then a blonde beauty of 16, lively and witty, but not much impressed with her valiant suitor. For two years she re mained deaf to his entreaties, answering his pathetic letters with ironic, sometimes unkind, little notes, openly laughing at him. Then, caught at her own game, or perhaps out of boredom, if not by calculation, she gave up. In 1678 Sarah Jennings became Sarah Churchill. But in Sarah's heart was another pas. sion that was much more important to her.

While still a young girl, not too many years before, her sister had often taken her to the Royal Palace to play with he daughters of the Duke of York -Mary, the dominating and stubborn elder one, and Anne the sweet and carefree, if sometimes unexpectedly temperamental one.

Anne was a full four years younger than Sarah, and quickly developed a deep admiration for the brilliant Miss Jennings. In their games, Sarah conducted and organized everything. Mary would sometimes object and was summarily dismissed but 16

Anne conformed quite happily. With the arrival of adolescence, she feelings altered; Anne's would weep whenever her "beloved" had to leave the palace for as as much a few days Later when she grew old enough to organize her own personal household, she selected Sarah Jennings to be one of her ladiesinwaiting.

**This friendship was too passionate to go unnoticed. The two friends would lock themselves in Anne's apartments for several hours every day. Separation meant deadly ennui to both and they were quite openly jealous of each other Anne used to say that she wanted Sarah to be exclusively and entirely hers, and that she could not bear her absence."

Who wrote this? Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister af Elizabeth II and descendant of John and Sarah Churchill, in the book he wrote about his famous ancestors.

Under the circumstances, Sarah's marriage to John probably wounded Anne severely. However, instead of showing any resentment or jealousy, Anne became very friendly to the young husband and showered her favors on the new couple.

While John who had been made a baron in 1682 and a colonel in 1883-was fighting wars or undertaking diplomatic missions for the Duke of York, his wife and the princess were living together or writing long letters to each other whenever circumstances separated them for u few days. Anne had suggested that they should use pseudonyms in order to prevent gossip and eliminate such words mattachine REVIEW

"Royal Highness" and "humble servant", which did not fit the nature of their relationship. Sarah became Mrs. Freeman and Anne was Mrs. Morley.

The marriage of "Mrs Morley" to the Prince of Denmark, a "royal nonentity", did not bring much change into the lives of the two friends, save that, at regular intervals, Anne had to be confined to give birth (14 times) or secluded to mourn her children, none of whom reached maturity.

How were the two friends living between the years of 1680 and 1690? We can get fair picture of their life from the memoirs written by Sarah a few years after Anne's death, as well as from other documents of the period. A portrait of the princess, engraved about 1680, shows her as a pleasant looking girl, her round face enlivened by large eyes and a laughing mouth, her hair parted into two bundles of curls, and a friendly, if somewhat enigmatic expression. Her chin was rather accentuated and her bosom perhaps betrayed the corpulence that was to come in later years. All this is surrounded by a light and symbolic atmosphere a bouquet held by a graceful hand, a tree, and a portico. The portrait cannot reveal Anne's greatest charm a voice that was exquisite and all harmony, the supreme gift for a wo-

man.

Sarah, as painted by Sir John Lely at the age of 30, had an oval face enlightened by almondshaped eyes that glistened like emeralds and were charged with lightning, a turned-up nose, and

fine but pinched lips. The expression is full of life, ironical and captivating at the same time but also slightly disturbing. In the portrait she wears rather a severe black dress, very simple, with a mantilla over her blond hair. She said of herself that she was essentially simple and sincere, with no taste for intrigue, but her letters show her to be dominating and ill-temper. ed; she pestered Anne in order to obtain the dismissal of her own mother, Lady Jennings, with whom she was at odds.

The princess, on the other hand, with all her dignity and occasional fits of temper, was actually soft putty in the strong hands of Lady Churchill. As the the daughter to the heir to throne, Anne lived in a small palace, close to the Royal Palace at Whitehall. It was called the "Cockpit" because cock fights had formerly been held there for Henry VIII. She spent days surrounded by her small entourage, riding in Hyde Park and boating on the Thames, which at that time was as jammed with pleasure boats, barges, and galleys as the Grand Canal in Venice.

The reconstruction of London was just being completed after the great fire of 1666, and the gentry was enjoying itself in the frivolous and luxury-loving mood of the Restoration. The King lived at St. James or Whitehall in the Winter and at Hampton Court or Windsor in the summer. Anne attended attended the festivities with her friend Sarah and with her went hunting or visited the spas, in spite of stormy political events and the very uncertain future. In fact, the Stuart dyn-