I Hope you are alike sensible with me of the danger of these difficult times: tis true, I am held but as a Fugitive, as one fled into France, and it was but time (And I am glad I took occasion by the fore-lock,) otherwise I knew our owne Ec­clesiasticall Canons would have bin charged and bent against mee, and what I pray you have you got by your tarrying at home, when their terrible thunder shall strike you sooner and neerer and at home, then me being abroad and far off? Therein the detriment of your delay, and the benefit of my active dispatch, you being now present to abide all their perverse sentences: and I priviledged from all their peremptorie cen­sures.

But I pray Master Doctor, but let us recall to our selves ab Origine from the beginning of our first acquaintance, when you and I were first Students in Trinitie Hall in Cambridge: tis true, that when wee were first there fellow commoners, our ambitions were to be after Doctors of the Commons, and though I then trivanted my time, and was none of the best proficients, yet what by the freenesse of my purse, and favour of friends, I tooke my Degree when the time of commence­ment came, and so shuffled in amongst the rest of my fellow stu­dents, that it was put upon me, without question, and then that one old English meeter came into my minde.

ANd then I knew withall how to cheat the Latin proverb which sayth, Cucullus non facit Monachum: presuming that the head, and that onely made the Doctor : Sir I would not have been so plain to any but your selfe, whom I knowe to be a fellow practitioner in all my former proceedings, and come a like sufferer in these our present C [...]lamities, which makes mee unto you so freely to confesse my selfe; and not without a sorrowfull sigh to say,

YOu know Doctor (and no man better) that being Cu­cullated and admitted into the Commons, we must car­ry our selves like souldiers doubling our files to the right hand & to the left, & such is our case in dealing with our clyents, for receiving of our fees, it is not fitting that the left hand should know what the right hand doth, and notwithstanding I know my insufficiency in the imperiall or civill Lawe, as onely verst in the ordinary Tenents and common places; for I ever loved too much my pleasure to take [...]oo much paynes at my study, yet I so sk [...]ued my selfe into Causes and tooke the occasion of all adva [...]tages, gathering up crumbs, I cared not from under whose Table, that in processe of time I picked up a thousand pounds in my purse, which not willing it should lye idle and rust in a corner, I was apt to put it out to Opus and Vsus: But (child as I was) delivering it into the hands of Child the Scrivener, I was cheated of it all at a clap, never was Roan served such an horse trick; notwithstanding which, I bore it cut bravely, and though both purse and pockets were prettily emptied, yet I ba [...]ed nothing in my countenance, and Dominie Doctor was then the onely thing I had to trust to, which supported mee in my credit assisted with my small practise, and loud clamour in the Courts.

For how could wee live at that full rate, to feed high and drinke deep, to carry all our deportments in that gentile garbe, by ordinary fees; and common gratuities? no; where skill is scanted we must use slight and subtilty, and when lear­ning is lacking wee must fly to Legerdimane; nay sometimes fee as we would be feed, and bribe as our desire is to be bri­bed, this is lex Talionis the Law of Tallying, manus manum fricat, claw mee, claw thee, nay indeed, the true lawe of charity, to doe to others as we would have done to our selves and therefore how oft have I come off, with silke stockings to divers of my Lord Arch-bishop schiefe servants with suits of Sattin, plush cloaks, beavers and the like, and some­times presented their Chaplains with Canonicall Cassacks [Page 5] and Leviticall girdles; not passing the gate, without a me­morandum to the porter, now if any shall say what was the event or successe of these? to them I answer, then had I coun­tenance in the high Commission Court (a poxe take it, and would I had never knowne it,) and his mighty Metropoli­tan-ship, would either take notice of me, by affording mee a gracious nod, or sweetning mee with a smile, or perhaps saying, how doth my good Doctor and this get me credit a­monst my Clyents, Intelligence from the Sumnors, and pa­ritors, practise by the meanes of the Courtiers and a cur­rent Correspondence with the chiefe Doctors of the Com­mons, so that I was not only favoured by Surrogates, but frien­ded by the Judges of the Courts themselves.

Moreover I was Martins Minion, Lambs best beloved, and Ducks delight, and in which of their Courts soever I pleaded, or was of Counsell, I carried the cause, though it were false and corrupt, as the Lattin I uttered or mine owne Conscience, and then I thought Doctor Roane to bee as good a man within his Prerogative Courts of Freedome: as Dr. de-Roan in his great principality of France, for the registers of courts, were as my retainers or rather receivers, by agitating of whom I passed all mine Acts whether in false or true Lattin substance or non sence, all was one between them and mee, as things were carried amongst us, witnesse the first Act for processe and others, as the Acts ad Procedendum, ad Continus n­dum, ad molius Inquirendum, ad sententium, ad Detractandum, ad Concludendum, ad finitum, and I am affraid if I had stayed by it, and not took my heeles in time, I had been served by this with a writ of Diem clausit Extremum; and these Cour­ses I have bin forc'd to run, otherwise by this I had been forc'd to have beg'd or sold Ballets in the streets, but I praise my Star, I have past over all these difficulties, but most for escaping of that most dangerous Writ ne excat regnum.

But in the way of news thus briefly: The Protestants and Pa­pists, are together by the eares in France, and they are all of them as sicke of the magni potent Cardinall, as you of your me­tropolitan Canterbury.

And now let me recollect you of a passage, which as it is in my Register so I make no question it fell in your remembrance, how I fetcht of one of our proud peremptory Proctors who look [...] [Page] as high and big as Guy of Warwicke, when hee had killed the dunne Cowe of Dunmowe, or came newly from the sla [...]gh­ter of Colubrand the mighty and huge Danish Grant, whose braines he beate out with his pilgrim or palmers staff: this couragious cup Conquerour, walking late in the evening mee­ting with a Citizen and his wife in Fleetstreet, tooke her a­way perforce, and like a Familist, in the heate of his zeale, hurried her away to his chamber, and made that use of this pretty matron, that you and I have done of many; but mum: no more words of that, for the proverb tells us, it is an ill bird that will beray her owne nest. And wee of the Commons made conscience to hould all such Commodities in common: but now I repent mee of passing those bandy acts, but silence for that, and stet too: but to returne where I left.

This cunning and crafty (I will not say Cuckold) Ci­tizen after complaint made brought him within the com­passe of our spirituall Courts, and prosecuted the cause a­gainst him by one of his fellow proctors, but the cunning delinquent seeing mee to bee one of his Counsaile, I un­dertooke his defence, by pretending, hee tooke him for a knave, and her for a prostitute, and having but one witnesse, the plaintiffe was condemned in Court, and I brought the businesse to an easie composition, a good and bountifull supper ended it, where I fed prodigall like a lusty Roan-horse, with a full manger of provender before him.

I have intelligence here in France, that some pen or o­ther having had commiseration of the fall of our Commons, have not only sorrowed with us in that sicknesse, but tooke the paines to make its last will and Testament; and what legacies the Court hath left behind it, I knowe not whether the will be yet prov'd or no, nor who be the heires and executors; but of this I am certaine, that after death there must be a buriall; and (if it come not too late, for which I should be sorry) I would intreat you to let this funerall Elegie, to be hangd upon the herse, which I would intreate you to beare this title following.