BUCKINGHAM S LETTER. ccclxxxvii 



To the Lord St. Alban, 



My noble Lord, The hearty affection I have borne to 

 your person and service hath made me ambitious to be 

 a messenger of good news to you, and an eschewer of ill ; 

 this hath been the true reason why I have been thus long 

 in answering you, not any negligence in your discreet 



To the King. 



It may please your majesty, I have served your majesty now seventeen 

 years; neither was I, in these seventeen years, ever chargeable to your 

 majesty, but got my means in an honourable sweat of my labour, save that 

 of late your majesty was graciously pleased to bestow upon me the pension 

 of twelve hundred pounds for a few years. When I received the seal, I 

 left both the Attorney s place, which 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 majesty, 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, FR. ST. ALBAN. 



Septembers, 1621. 



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 Marquis of Buckingham. 



My very good Lord, Your lordship will pardon me if, partly in the 

 freedom of adversity, and partly of former friendship (the sparks whereof 

 cannot but continue), I open myself to your lordship, and desire also your 

 lordship to open yourself to me. That which most of all makes me doubt 

 of a change or cooling in your lordship s affection towards me is, that being 

 twice now at London, your lordship did not vouchsafe to see me, though 

 by messages you gave me hope thereof, and the latter time I had begged it 

 of your lordship. The cause of change may either be in myself or your 

 lordship. I ought first to examine myself, which I have done; and God 

 is my witness, I find all well, and that I have approved myself to your 



