Anne was Mrs.Morley: Lady Churchill was Mrs.
Freeman; and under these childish names was carried on during twenty years a correspondence on which at last the fate of administrations and dynasties depended.

But as yet Anne had no political power and little patronage.

Her friend attended her as first Lady of the Bedchamber, with a salary of only four hundred pounds a year.

There is reason, however, to believe that, even at this time, Churchill was able to gratify his ruling passion by means of his wife's influence.

The Princess, though her income was large and her tastes simple, contracted debts which her father, not without some murmurs, discharged; and it was rumoured that her embarrassments had been caused by her prodigal bounty to her favourite.