LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 411 



was a gainful place, and the clerkship of the Star-chamber, 

 which was Queen Elizabeth s favour, and was worth twelve 

 hundred pounds by the year, which would have been a good 

 commendam. The honours which your majesty hath done 

 me have put me above the means to get my living ; and 

 the misery I am fallen into hath put me below the means 

 to subsist as I am. I hope my courses shall be such, for 

 this little end of my thread which remaineth, as your ma 

 jesty in doing me good may do good to many, both that 

 live now, and shall be born hereafter. I have been the 

 keeper of your seal, and now am your beadsman. Let your 

 own royal heart, and my noble friend, speak the rest. 

 God preserve and prosper your Majesty. 



Your Majesty s faithful 



poor Servant and Beadsman, 



September 5, 1621. FR. ST. ALBAN. 



Cardinal Wolsey said, that if he had pleased God as he 

 pleased the king, he had not been ruined. My conscience 

 saith no such thing ; for I know not but in serving you, I 

 have served God in one. But it may be, if I had pleased 

 God, as I had pleased you, it would have been better with 

 me. 



To the King. 

 It may please your most excellent Majesty, 



I do very humbly thank your majesty for your gracious 

 remission of my fine. I can now, I thank God and you, 

 die, and make a will. 



I desire to do, for the little time God shall send me life, 

 like the merchants of London, which, when they give over 

 trade, lay out their money upon land. So, being freed 

 from civil business, I lay forth my poor talent upon those 

 things which may be perpetual, still having relation to do 

 you honour with those powers I have left. 



I have therefore chosen to write the reign of King Henry 

 the Vllth, who was in a sort your forerunner, and whose 

 spirit, as well as his blood, is doubled upon your majesty. 



I durst not have presumed to intreat your majesty to 

 look over the book, and correct it, or at least to signify 

 what you would have amended. But since you are pleased 

 to send for the book, I will hope for it. 



[* God knoweth whether ever I shall see you again ; but 

 I will pray for you to the last gasp, resting] 



The same, your true Beadsman, 

 Octobers, 1621. FT?. ST. ALB AN. 



* Tliis passage ha a line drawn over it. 



