her a favour, she will not take it ill, but put it off and answer you with some witty retort."

But enough of Spain. The business which carried him to that country, went on prosperously as long as the Spanish match was on foot; but the departure of the Prince and the subsequent rupture of the treaty, destroyed all his hopes of obtaining his suit. The king of Spain indeed still answered him graciously, but Olivares gave him, as he says, a churlish reply; "That when the Spaniards had justice in England, we should have justice here." This rebuff leads to his own return home, and we soon meet with a long and minute account of the death of King James the First.

"As soon as he expired, the Privy Council sat, and in less than a quarter of an hour, King Charles was proclaimed at Theobald's Court Gate, by Sir Edward Zouch, Knight Marshal. Mr. Secretary Conway dictating to him, That whereas it had pleased God to take to his mercy, our most gracious Sovereign, King James, of famous memory; We proclaim Prince Charles, his rightful and indubitable heir, to be King, &c. The Knight Marshal mistook, saying, his rightful and dubitable heir, but he was rectified by the Secretary. This being done, I took my horse instantly, and came to London, first, except one, who was come a little before me, insomuch that I found the gates shut. His Majesty now took coach, and the D. of Buckingham with him, and came to St. James's; and in the evening he was proclaimed at Whitehall-Gate, Cheapside, and other places, in a sad shower of rain: and the weather was suitable to the condition wherein he finds the kingdom, which is cloudy; for he is left engaged in a war with a potent Prince, the people by long desuetude unapt for arms, the fleetroyal in quarter repair, himself without a queen, his sister without a country, the crown pitifully laden with debts, and the purse of the state lightly ballasted, though it never had better opportunity to be rich, than it had these last twenty years.

There are great preparations for the funeral, and there is a design to buy all the cloth for mourning, white, and then put it to the dyers in gross, which is like to save the crown a good deal of money; the drapers murmur extremely at the Lord Cranfield for it."

We cannot pass over the notice of Lord Bacon's death, because it tends to clear his character from the imputation of a sordid passion for money, for its own sake.

"My Lord Chancellor Bacon is lately dead of a long languishing weakness; he died so poor, that he scarce left money to bury him, which, though he had a great wit, did argue no great wisdom; it being one of the essential properties of a wise man, to provide for the main chance. I have read that it had been the fortune of all poets commonly to die beggars; but for an orator, a lawyer, and philosopher, as he was, to die so, it is rare. It seems the same fate befel him that

attended Demosthenes, Seneca, and Cicero, of whom the two first fell by corruption. The fairest diamond may have a flaw in it, but I believe he died poor out of a contempt of the help of fortune, as also out of an excess of generosity, which appeared, as in divers other passages; so once, when the King had sent him a stag, he sent up for the under-keeper, and having drunk the king's health to him in a great silver-gilt bowl, he gave it to him for his fee.

He wrote a pitiful letter to King James, not long before his death, and concludes, 'Help me, dear Sovereign, Lord and Master, and pity me so far, that I who have been born to a Bag, be not now in my age forced in effect to bear a Wallet; nor that I who desire to live to study, may be driven to study to live.' Which words, in my opinion, argued a little abjection of spirit, as his former letter to the Prince did of profaneness; wherein he hoped, that as the father was his Creator, the son will be his Redeemer.' I write not this to derogate from the worth of the Lord Viscount Verulam, who was a rare man; a man reconditæ scientiæ, et ad salutem literarum natus, and I think the eloquentest that was born in this isle."

He gives a very circumstantial account of the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham, in which however, there is little to be found beyond the common story of that event, except, perhaps, the manner in which he describes Charles to have received the intelligence of his favourite's murder. Capt. Price went post presently to the king four miles off, who being at prayers on his knees when it was told him, yet never stirred, nor was he disturbed a whit, till all divine service was done."

The account of the Attorney-General Noy's death and will is most entertainingly given. He had before noticed this man's appointment, in the following manner. "Our greatest news here, now is, that we have a new Attorney-General, which is news indeed, considering the humour of the man, how he hath been always ready to entertain any cause whereby he might clash with the prerogative; but now as Judge Richardson's head is full of proclamations, and devices how to bring money into the exchequer, he hath lately found out among the old records of the Tower, some precedents for raising a tax called ship-money." It is in a letter to Lord Savage, that he says,

"Master Attorney-General Noy is lately dead, nor could Tunbridge waters do him any good: though he had good matter in his brain, he had it seems ill materials in his body; for his heart was shrivelled like a leather penny-purse, when he was dissected, nor were his lungs sound.

Being such a clerk in the law, all the world wonders he left such an odd will, which is short and in Latin: the substance of it is, that he having bequeathed a few legacies, and left his second son one hundred marks a year, and five hundred pounds in money, enough to bring him up in his father's profession, he concludes, Reliqua meorum omnia pri

mogenito meo Edvardo, dissipanda, nec melius unquam speravi ego:I leave the rest of all my goods to my first born Edward, to be consumed or scattered, for I never hoped better. A strange and scarce a Christian will in my opinion, for it argues uncharitableness.

The Vintners drink carouses of joy that he is gone, for now they are in hope to dress meat again, and sell tobacco, beer, sugar, and faggots; which by a sullen capricio of his, he would have restrained them from. He had his humour as other men, but certainly he was a solid rational man; and though no great orator, yet a profound lawyer, and no man better versed in the records of the Tower. I heard your Lordship often say, with what infinite pains and indefatigable study he came to this knowledge: and I never heard a more pertinent anagram than was made of his name; William Noy,—I moyl in law.”

We shall give the next letter entire, in spite of its length, because it presents a curious and interesting picture of that habitually serious and religious turn of thinking, which was so distinguishing a feature of the days that are passed. In the earlier times of the reformation, the Protestants seem to have been scarcely behind the Romanists in their attention to all those outward observances connected with prayer and fasting, so well calculated, under due regulation, to maintain and keep alive the internal feeling of religion, which, without the aid of such appliances, is but too apt to die away of itself, or to be smothered and extinguished by the various avocations of the world.

"To Sir Ed. B. Knight.

Sir, I received yours this Maundy-Thursday; and whereas, among other passages and high endearments of love, you desire to know what method I observe in the exercise of my devotions; I thank you for your request, which I have reason to believe doth proceed from an extraordinary respect to me, and I will deal with herein as one should do with his confessor.

you

'Tis true tho' there be rules and rubrics in our Liturgy sufficient to guide every one in the performance of all holy duties, yet I believe every one hath some mode and model or formulary of his own, especially for his private cubicular devotions.

I will begin with the last day of the week, and with the latter end of that day, I mean Saturday evening, on which I have fasted ever since I was a youth in Venice, for being delivered from a very great danger. This year I use some extraordinary acts of devotions to usher in the ensuing Sunday, in hymns and various prayers of my own penning, before I go to bed. On Sunday morning I rise earlier than upon other days, to prepare myself for the sanctifying of it; nor do I use barber, taylor, shoe-maker, or any other mechanic that morning; and whatsoever diversions or lets may hinder me the week before, I never miss, but in case of sickness, to repair to God's holy house that day, where I come before prayers begin, to make myself fitter for the work

by some previous meditations, and to take the whole service along with me; nor do I love to mingle speech with any in the interim about news or worldly negotiations in God's holy house. I prostrate myself in the humblest and decentest way of genuflection I can imagine; nor do I believe there can be any excess of exterior humility in that place; therefore, I do not like those squatting unseemly bold postures upon one's tail, or muffling the face in the hat, or thrusting it in some hole, or covering it with one's hand; but with bended knee, and in open confident face, I fix my eyes on the east part of the church and heaven. I endeavour to apply every tittle of the service to my own conscience and occasions; and I believe the want of this, with the huddling up and careless reading of some ministers, with the commonness of it, is the greatest cause that many do undervalue and take a surfeit of our public service.

For the reading and singing psalms, whereas most of them are either petitions or Eucharistical ejaculations, I listen to them more attentively and make them my own. When I stand at the Creed, I think upon the custom they have in Poland and elsewhere, for gentlemen to draw their swords all the while, intimating thereby that they will defend it with their lives and blood. And for the Decalogue, whereas others use to rise and sit, I ever kneel at it in the humblest and trembling'st posture of all, to crave remission for the breaches passed of any of God's holy commandments, (especially the week before) and future grace to observe them.

I love a holy devout sermon, that first checks, and then cheers the conscience, that begins with the law and ends with the gospel : but I never prejudicate or censure any preacher, taking him as I find him.

And now that we are not only adulted but ancient Christians, I believe the most acceptable sacrifice we can send up to Heaven is prayer and praise; and that sermons are not so essential as either of them to the true practice of devotion. The rest of the holy Sabbath I sequester my body and mind as much as I can from worldly affairs.

Upon Monday morn, as soon as the Cinque-Ports are open, I have a particular prayer of thanks, that I am reprieved to the beginning of that week; and every day following I knock thrice at Heaven's gate, in the morning, in the evening, and at night; besides prayers at meals and some other occasional ejaculations, as upon the putting on a clean shirt, washing my hands, and at lighting of candles; which, because they are sudden, I do in the third person. Tuesday morning I rise winter and summer as soon as I awake, and send up a more particular sacrifice for some reasons; and as I am disposed, or have business, I go to bed again. Upon Wednesday night I always fast and perform also some extraordinary acts of devotion, as also upon Friday night; and Saturday morning, as soon as my senses are unlocked, I get up. And in the summer time, I am oftentimes abroad in some private field, to attend the sun-rising: and as I pray thrice every day, so I fast thrice every week; at least I eat but one meal upon Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, in regard I am jealous with myself to have more infirmities to answer for than others.

Before I go to bed, I make a scrutiny what peccant humors have reigned in me that day; and so I reconcile myself to my Creator, and strike a tally in the Exchequer of Heaven for my quietus est, ere I close my eyes, and leave no burden upon my conscience. Before I presume

to take the holy sacrament, I use some extraordinary acts of humiliation to prepare myself some days before, and by doing some deeds of charity; and commonly I compose some new prayers, and divers of them written in my own blood. I use not to rush rashly into prayer, without a trembling precedent meditation; and if any odd thoughts intervene and grow upon me, I check myself, and re-commence: and this is incident to long prayers, which are more subject to man's weakness and the Devil's malice. I thank God I have this fruit of my fo-. reign travels, that I can pray to him every day in the week in several languages, and upon Sunday in seven, which, in oraisons of my own, I punctually perform in my private post-meridian devotions.

Et sic æternam contendo attingere vitam.

By these steps I strive to climb up to Heaven, and my soul prompts me I shall go thither; for there is no object in the world delights me more than to cast up my eyes that way, especially in a star-light night; and if my mind be overcast with any odd clouds of melancholy, when I look up and behold that glorious fabric, which I hope shall be my country hereafter, there are new spirits begot in me presently, which make me scorn the world and the pleasures thereof, considering the vanity of the one and the inanity of the other.

Thus my soul still moves eastward, as all the heavenly bodies do; but I must tell you, as those bodies are overmastered and snatched away to the west, raptu primi mobilis, by the general motion of the tenth sphere, so by those epidemical infirmities which are incident to man, I am often snatched away a clean contrary course, yet my soul persists still in her own proper motion. I am often at variance and angry with myself (nor do I hold this anger to be any breach of charity) when I consider, that whereas my Creator intended this body of mine, though a lump of clay, to be a temple of his Holy Spirit, my affections should turn it often to a brothel-house, my passions to a bedlam, and my excesses to a hospital. Being of a lay profession, I humbly conform to the constitutions of the church and my spiritual superiors; and I hold this obedience to be an acceptable sacrifice to God.

Difference in opinion may work a disaffection in me, but not a detestation; I rather pity than hate a Turk and Infidel, for they are of the same metal and bear the same stamp as I do, though the inscriptions differ: if I hate any, it is those schismatics that puzzle the sweet peace of our church, so that I could be content to see an Anabaptist go to hell on a Brownist's back.

Noble knight, now that I have thus eviscerated myself and dealt so clearly with you, I desire, by way of correspondence, that you would tell me what way you take in your journey to Heaven: for if my breast lie so open to you, it is not fitting yours should be shut up to me; therefore, I pray let me hear from you when it may stand with your