268 Longleat Papers, No. 4, 



strength, rather to com agayn at the Spryng, then now to tarie the slow workyng 

 of them. And thei-£or with my haity comendacions to my good ladye & to my 

 godson I take my leave of you with infinite thanks, & commit you to God. From 

 Bathe the xviij"" of Septemb. 1576. 



" your old assured 

 " To the right worshipfull " freende 



my loving frend S' " T. Smith." 



John Thynne Knight " 



Docketed : " S'. Thomas Smyth 18 Sept. 1576." 



XXIX. — c. 1573. Robert Devereux, Second Earl of Essex. 

 1. Sir Fulke Greville to the Earl for help to be restored 

 TO THE Queen's favour. 



[This letter is undated, but it was probably written by Sir Fulke 

 Greville, the third of that name, afterwards created Lord Brooke, 

 who met with a violent death, being stabbed by his own servant 

 at Brooke House, Holborn, in 1627. In early life ^ he was very 

 eager to distinguish himself in foreign enterprize, but not being 

 able to obtain the Queen's leave, went abroad without it; for 

 which on his return he " was made to live in her court a spectacle 

 of dishonour, too long, as he conceived." As he advanced in 

 years he became less ambitious, " finding it sufiicient for the plant 

 to grow where the Sovereign's hand had planted it." That hand 

 having planted him at Warwick Castle, it may be considered that 

 Sir Fulke deserves no particular praise for having so soon " learned 

 to be content."] 



" Right honorable & my very good Lord, whyle I am absent I feare ether to 

 be forgotten or misconstrd, for princes must not looke into ther own princely 

 minds or fortunes to Jiidge the passions wherein private men langiiishe, kings 

 being not able to be so little as they must be, that can see or feele want. My Lord 

 aU this whyle I accuse no body, but myselfe, for her maiesty hathe bene all I 

 have to me, & more then I can desei-ve / yet noble Lord because princes graces, 

 be the only merits of subjectes let me presume to tell you I fly very near the 

 water so as the wings of my fortune grow wett and heavy, yeat yf I leave looking 

 of the star I fall into the ditche, soe my tyme that is gone hath carried all other 

 hopes and thoughts a way with it / 



" Noble lord by a better mouthe then yours she cannot hear of my estate, it 

 will at the least excuse my absens, & make her see that I have done lyke them 

 that fale into deepe waters, catched hold of thorns & briers to kepe me in her ser- 

 vice, when she sees her tyme she can retreve me or do something with me that 



* See Collins's Peerage. " Greville Lord Brooke." 



