Xvi PREFACE. 



&quot; may be perpetual, still having relation to do you 

 &quot; honour with those powers I have left. 



&quot; I have therefore chosen to write the reign of 

 &quot; King Henry the Seventh, who was in a sort your 

 &quot; forerunner, and whose spirit, as well as his blood 

 is doubled upon your majesty. 



I durst not have presumed to intreat your 

 &quot; majesty to look over the book, and correct it, or at 

 &quot; least to signify what you would have amended. 

 &quot; But since you are pleased to send for the book, I 

 &quot; will hope for it. 



&quot; God knoweth, whether ever I shall see you 

 &quot; again ; but I will pray for you to the last gasp, 

 &quot; resting * the same, your true beadsman, 



&quot; FR. ST. ALBAN &quot; 



October 8, 1621.&quot; 



During the progress of the work, considerable 

 expectation was excited respecting the history. 

 Rawley in his life of Bacon, says, &quot;His fame is 

 &quot; greater, and sounds louder, in foreign parts abroad, 

 than at home, in his own nation. Thereby verify- 

 &quot; ing that divine sentence ; a prophet is not without 

 &quot; honour, save in his own country, and in his own 

 &quot; house. Concerning which, I will give you a taste 

 &quot; only, out of a letter written from Italy, (the store- 

 &quot; house of refined wits,) to the late Earl of Devon- 

 &quot; shire ; then the Lord Cavendish. I will expect the 

 &quot; new Essays of my Lord Chancellor Bacon, as also 

 &quot; his history, with a great deal of desire ; and what- 

 &quot; soever else, he shall compose. But in particular, of 

 &quot; his history, I promise myself, a thing perfect, and 

 * Note. This passage has a line drawn over it. 



