196 LETTERS FROM THE BACONIAN A. 



my misery is so plentiful, as it need not be coupled with any 

 thing else. 1 have been somebody by your majesty s sin 

 gular and undeserved favour, even the prime officer of your 

 kingdom. Your majesty s arm hath been over mine in 

 council, when you presided at the table, so near I was : I 

 have borne your majesty s image in metal, much more in heart; 

 I was never in nineteen years service chidden by your ma 

 jesty, but contrariwise often overjoyed, when your majesty 

 would sometimes say, I was a good husband for you, 

 though none for myself: sometimes, that I had a way to 

 deal in business tf suavibus modis,&quot; which was the way 

 which was most according to your own heart : and other 

 most gracious speeches of affection and trust, which I 

 feed on to this day. But why should I speak of these 

 things which are now vanished, but only the better to 

 express the downfall ? 



For now it is thus with me : I am a year and a half old 

 in misery ; though I must ever acknowledge, not without 

 some mixture of your majesty s grace and mercy ; for I do 

 not think it possible, that any you once loved should be 

 totally miserable. Mine own means, through mine own im 

 providence, are poor and weak, little better than my father 

 left me. The poor things which I have had from your ma 

 jesty, are either in question or at courtesy. My dignities 

 remain marks of your favour, but burthens of my present 

 fortune. The poor remnants which I had of my former 

 fortunes in plate or jewels, I have spread upon poor men 

 unto whom I owed, scarce leaving myself a convenient 

 subsistence. So as to conclude, I must pour out my 

 misery before your majesty, so far as to say, &quot; Si deseris 

 tu, perimus.&quot; 



But as I can offer to your majesty s compassion little 

 arising from myself to move you, except it be my extreme 

 misery, which I have truly laid open ; so Booking up to 

 your majesty s own self, I should think I committed Cain s 

 fault if I should despair. Your majesty is a king, whose 



