460 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



My Lord Treasurer sent me a good answer touching my 

 monies. I pray you continue to quicken him, that the king 

 may once clear with me. A fire of old wood needeth no 

 blowing; but old men do. I ever rest 



Yours to do you service. 



To Sir Robert Pye. 

 Good Sir Robert Pye, 



Let me intreat you to dispatch that warrant of a petty 

 sum, that it may help to bear my charge of coming up* to 

 London. The duke, you know, loveth me, and my Lord 

 Treasurer f standeth now towards me in very good affection 

 and respect. J You, that are the third person in these 

 businesses, I assure myself, will not be wanting; for you 

 have professed and shewed, ever since I lost the seal, your 

 good will towards me. I rest 



Your affectionate and assured Friend, &c. 

 Indorsed To Sir Robert Pye. Gor. 1625. 



To the Earl of Dorset. 

 My very good Lord, 



This gentleman, the bearer hereof, Mr. Colles by name, 

 is my neighbour. He is commended for a civil young 

 man. I think he wanteth no metal, but he is peaceable. 

 It was his hap to fall out with Mr. Matthew Francis, ser- 

 jeant at arms, about a toy; the one affirming, that a hare 

 was fair killed, and the other foul. Words multiplied, and 

 some blows passed on either side. But since the first fall 

 ing out, the serjeant hath used towards him divers threats 

 and affronts, and, which is a point of danger, sent to him a 

 letter of challenge : but Mr. Colles, doubting the contents 

 of the letter, refused to receive it. Motions have been made 

 also of reconcilement, or of reference to some gentlemen of 

 the country not partial: but the serjeant hath refused all, 

 and now, at last, sueth him in the Earl Marshal s court. 

 The gentleman saith, he distrusteth not his cause upon the 



* From Gorhambury. 



t Sir James Lord Ley, advanced from the post of Lord Chief Justice of the 

 King s Bench, on the 20th of December, 1624, to that of Lord Treasurer ; and 

 created Earl of Marlborough on the 5th of February, 1625-6. 



| His lordship had not been always in that disposition towards the Lord 

 Viscount St. Alban ; for the latter has, among the letters printed in his works, 

 one to this Lord Treasurer, severely expostulating with him about his unkindness 

 and injustice. 



Sir Edward Sackville succeeded to that title on the death of his brother 

 Richard, March 28, 1624. 



