28 Longleat Papers, No. 3. 



The same to R. Dudley. 



" If it had so plesed God I had rather have cume thys day to have donne my 

 dewte in watting on the quene's majestie and so to have spoken with you me 

 selfe then to have trobled you with my elve \_i.e., evil] hand and worse engleshe / 

 but with the good wyl of God I must be eonntent praing you therefor \m good 

 lord if you hier har majeste speke of me to declare unto har for me the truthe of 

 me absence wyche is onle sekeness and that so exstremle wons yesterday that I 

 thowght I shold no mor have senne har / but God be praysed I am a lettel and in 

 cumparesone a grette dele better to day and as thys [be] our coumfortes in 

 sekenes adversettes persecussens or wat eles in thes world can hapene us that they 

 be sent of God for our profett and that nothinge can hapene ames [amis] to his 

 elect cheldei'en / and he hathe also geven us hys Dere sonne to be a saveyr and 

 medeator suche a won as ways countent to abayse himself for our sakes as to 

 come dowen and take on him thys wyke fleshe in the wj^che he sufered al things 

 for our sakes, senne onle exsepte, wherfor he hathe the mor pette [pity] of his 

 aflected and after his exsample tychethe us so to pette won another as we wolde 

 be pettede wyche makethe me wons more bolde to treble you be cawse I beyng 

 seke and other ways at leberte and much mayd of makethe me the better to thenke 

 and conseder they wyche be in lyke case of sekeness and laketh bothe the on and 

 the other wat sorows they fend when we in better case be resone of sekenes can 

 fend no comfort / Alays, I knowe the quene's majeste wantes not thj's pytte for 

 I have hard har myselfe lement thos wyche hathe loste duble the presse of calles 

 [double the price of Calais] as Boner layte bashope of Londone by his wyling 

 cruelte no fue nomber of the saynctes of God hathe loste ther lyves, no fue nom- 

 ber ther soles, wyche inded is the gretter losse of ij. and I thenke he ways no 

 grett frend to har majesty's persone and yet throwe har mercy he lyvethe at 

 suche leberte as he him selfe, consedering his owen cnielle factes, I thenke cold 

 not have hoped for Nowe whey sholde I then dyspayr in har majeste's mercy 

 for me Ingnorant cosene, howe [who] I am suer, ways and ys of al men to be 

 exskwesed for any wylfule tryspasse in the losse of the castel * / and as touchyng 

 the counsel I can not but also have a good hope that they wol showe themselves 

 so honorable in doyng justes that in no wyes the seely mane cane suffer wrong 

 whj'er so many other of coumpaynes as gret in honor and truste have found such 

 mercy Wei this is al no man dothe in suche things wat he Ij'ste but as God 

 apointhe him Wliei-for I wool commet bothe you and the casse to him howe 

 [who] saythe Blessed is the merciful for he shall fend mercy, praying him in al 

 things to aseste you with his grace 



" Yo' assurede to my powre 



"K. SUFFOULK." 



XIX. — 1572, May 8th. Richaud Farmer to the Earl of 

 Leicester, from the Tower. 

 [Eicliard Farmer was, apparently, an officer or agent about the 



• This seems to have been the cause of the disgrace into which the " poor and ignorant cousin " 

 for whom these letters of the Duchess of Suffolk plead so strongly, had fallen with the Queen. But 

 nothing has been met with to explain the case more particularly. 



