She could even stand up to the vitriolic Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, and stand up so effectively that they tacitly agreed to an armed neutrality that verged perilously upon friendship.

The young Duke of Wharton sometimes beat her in open fight, but she harboured no very angry feelings towards him.

As regards Pope, if it was not tit-for-tat with him, at least she gave him hard knocks.

Pope, great poet as he was, never played fair in war.
"Lady Mary, quite contrary," she might have been dubbed, for she was frequently in trouble.

The Remond scandal, that will presently be unfolded, was a thing apart; but her witty tongue made her many enemies and cost her many friends.