32 LETTERS FROM STEPHENS. 



whose house hath already much revived my languishing 

 spirits, I beseech your highness, thank him for me. God 

 ever preserve and prosper your highness. 



Your Highness s most humble and 



most bound en Servant, 



June 1,1621. FR. ST. A L BAN. 



To the King. 



It may please your most excellent Majesty, 

 I humbly thank your majesty for my liberty, without 

 which timely grant, any farther grace would have come too 

 late. But your majesty, that did shed tears in the begin 

 ning of my trouble, will, I hope, shed the dew of your 

 grace and goodness upon me in the end. Let me live to 

 serve you, else life is but the shadow of death to 

 Your Majesty s most devoted Servant, 



June 4, 1621. F- ^T. ALBAN. 



To the Marquis of Buckingham. 

 My very good Lord, 



I heartily thank your lordship for getting me out of 

 prison ; and now my body is out, my mind nevertheless will 

 be still in prison, till I may be on my feet to do his majesty 

 and your lordship faithful service. Wherein your lordship, 

 by the grace of God, shall find that my adversity hath 

 neither spent, nor pent my spirits. God prosper you. 

 Your Lordship s most obliged Friend 



and faithful Servant, 



June 4, 1621. FR. ST. ALBAN. 



To the King. 

 It may please your most excellent Majesty, 



I perceive, by my noble and constant friend, the Marquis, 

 that your majesty hath a gracious inclination towards me, 

 and taketh care of me, for fifteen years the subject of your 

 favour, now of your compassion, for which I most humbly 

 thank your majesty. This same Nova Creatura is the 

 work of God s pardon and the King s, and since I have the 

 inward seal of the one, I hope well of the other. 



Utar, saith Seneca to his master, magnis exemplis ; nee 

 me& fortune, sed tu&. Demosthenes was banished for 

 bribery of the highest nature, yet was recalled with honour; 

 Marcus Livius was condemned for exactions, yet after 

 wards made consul and censor. Seneca banished for divers 

 corruptions, yet was afterwards restored, and an instrument 



