MY Lord, I owe my selfe to your Lord­ship, for your late favours; and therfore much more the account of my selfe, though [...] debt in either respect be of little con­sideration, and the calling of both may be of grea­ter advantage to you, then to continue the Oblig [...] ­tion.

This account had bin presented to your Lp. [...] my first arrivall here with my first dispatches, but I was so mortified with my hazardous passage in an open shallop, and so perplext with the thoughts of miseries, into which I sind my selfe plunged, and besides, the departure of the messenger that carried those letters, was so suddaine, that it was not pos­sible to performe this duty to your Lordship soo­ner; for the which I doe most humbly crave pardon. your Lordship may now please to accept the ex­pressions from the saddest and most wounded soule in the whole World, who am a spectacle of mise­ry in my selfe, in my distressed Wife and children, and in my whole fortunes, who have left the atten­ding of my Soveraigne and Master, and accesse to the best Prince in the world, who am become a scorne and by-word to all the world, both at home and abroad, a wanderer, and exile from mine owne [Page 3]Countrey, now in the declination of my yeares, and likely to end my dayes in a remote Countrey, and far from the comfort of all my friends. What I am guilty off, none knowes so well as his Majesty, whom I haue served faithfully, diligently, painfully, and with as true and loyall an heart, according to my poore abi­lities, as any other whatsoever, and if I found my Conscience charged with any crime of basenesse, corruption, infidelity, or any thing else unworthy of a Gentleman, I should not venture to addresse these Complaints to your Lordship, or to any o­ther person of Honour, in this disconsolate estate, being an object not altogether unworthy of your Lordships compassion, be it for no other respect, but that I have long served the King and Queenes Majesties. I doubt not but your Lordship, in your generosity and goodnesse, will have a lively sense & feeling of my sufferings, and vouchsafe me such re­liefe as in your Honour you may; and if my selfe, who by course of Nature cannot be now of long continuance, be not considerable, J most humbly beseech your Lordship to have pitty upon my poore innocent wife, and children, that they receive such comfort and assistance from you in my ab­sence, that they may be preserved from perishing. And to that end J most humbly crave your Lord­ships favour to this Bearer my Sonne, and to give him the Honour of accesse whensoever hee shall make his addresses to you, wherein you shall doe a worke of singular charity; And because there is an opinion in the world, that J have much impro­ved my fortunes by the Roman party; And there hath beene some designe by my ministery to intro­duce [Page 4]Popery into England, I shall most humbly crave your Lordships patience in giving me leave to cleere those two great misunderstandings, which if they were true, were sufficient to render mee un­capable of his Majesties favours, or of the com­passion of any person of honour whatsoever; For the first, it is notorious to all the world that ha­ving now served his Majesty in the place of a Se­cretary above eight yeares, I have not added one foot of Land to the inheritance left me by my Fa­ther, which in Land and Lease was not above 500 pounds per annum, a poore and inconsiderable e­state for a Secretary, and such an one as most Se­cretaries have more then trebled in a short time; for my manner of living, it hath been much under the dignity of a Secretary, and if I had not beene very frugall, J could not have subsisted; where then this concealed masse of Treasure is (I wish those that speake so liberally of it) would let me know; for I doe protest to God I am utterly to seeke where to discover it, and at this present, I am so unfurnished with monies, that if his Majestie cause me not to be supplyed, I am unable to subsist in these parts without exposing my family in Eng­land to the danger of starving, and yet neither my purpose nor inclination is to live otherwise heere, then in the greatest obscurity and closenesse that possible I may; I assure your Lordship that those of the Roman party that passed my hands by his Majesties commandment, were poore distressed creatures, and farre from being able to inrich me, and besides how little I have attended my owne private, and how freely and like a Gentleman I [Page 5]hope I may speake the truth without ostentation I have done curtesies to all, I wish it should rather appeare by the testimony of such as have made use of my services, then by mine owne. My Father and J, haved served the Crowne of England neare 80. yeares together, in which time, if a greater e­state had beene raised it might well have beene ju­stified, considering the great imployments neere the persons of Queene Elizabeth, King Iames, and his Majesty that now is, wee both have had; and your Lordship may beleeve it (for J avow it upon the faith of a Christian) that it is no more then I have above-mentioned, and whether there are not many from lesse imployments have risen to bee Noble-men, and made their fortunes accordingly, J leave to the world to judge.

For the other suspition of my being a favourer or an aduancer of Popery, I protest before the Al­mighty God, & as I shall answer at the last dread­full day, that I know no ground for the least suspi­tion thereof, neither am I my selfe, nor is any other to my knowledge guilty of the least thought of any such purpose; For my self I received my Baptisme in the Church of England, and J know nothing in the Church of Rome that can winne me from that Church wherein I was made a Christian; I doe therefore hold this Church of England, not onely a true and Orthodox Church, but the most pure, and neere the Primitive of any in the Christian world, and this J will bee ready to seale with my blood, whensoever there shall be occasion (with this fur­ther protestation) that if I did not hold it so, I vvould not continue in it for any vvorldly respects vvhatsoever.

For that which hath passed my hands for favour of that party, it hath bin meerly ministerial, as his Ma­jesty best knowes, and I must be bold to say, that his Majesty hath not bin deceived by it, but hath recei­ved many greater advantages; besides that if a Se­cretary of State should not hold intelligence with the party is absolute to disable him for the service of the state, & that hath bin done alwayes more or lesse, and so must alwayes continue. Kings and their ministers of State, have ever had, and might ever have a Latitude according to time and occasion, & cannot be so tyed according to stricknesse of law as others are, without perill to the government, there­fore when the Roman party were practique and busie about the state, there was reason to bee more strick't, but now by the wisedome of the Queen & her good Officers, they are better tempered, lesse se­verity hath bin used, it being the prerogative of the Prince to use moderation according to accusation, further then this J have not had to doe with the Roman party, nor thus farre but in obedience to my Masters commandment, which I hope shall not be censured a crime, this being my condition, I most humbly submit it to your Lordships wisdome and goodnesse, and seeing there is no malignity in it, nor prejudice to the state, That your Lordship would vouchsafe me your favour and protection, and pre­serve me from perishing.