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you had heard his name used, till you had heard from him. For, if you had willingly given your consent and hand to the recovery of the young gentlewoman, and then written both to us and to him what inconvenience appeared to you to be in that match, that had been the part indeed of a true servant unto us, and a true friend to him; but first to make an opposition, and then to give advice by way of friendship, is to make the plough to go before the horse.

Thus leaving all the particulars of your carriage in this business to the own proper time, which is ever the discoverer of truth, we commend you to God.

Given under our signet at Nantwich, in the fifteenth year of our reign of Great Britain, &c.

James I. to the Lords of the Treasury.

My Lords,

1

November 12, 1617.

No worldly thing is so precious as time. You know what task I gave you to work upon during my absence, and what time was limited unto you for the performance thereof. This same Chancellor of Scotland was wont to tell me, four and twenty years ago, that my house could not be kept upon epigrams; long discourses

1 Cabala, p. 237. The constant extravagance of James, and the demands habitually made upon him by Buckingham for pecuniary assist ance, had rendered the retrenchment of the royal household an act of necessary economy. Before his departure for Scotland, James had appointed commissioners for this purpose, and the tardiness of their proceedings appears to have occasioned the present gentle reproof.

and fair tales will never repair my estate.

Omnis virtus

in actione consistit. Remember that I told you the shoe must be made for the foot, and let that be the square of all your proceedings in the business. Abate superfluities in all things, and multitudes of unnecessary officers, wherever they may be placed; but for the household, wardrobe, and pensions, cut and carve as many as may agree with the possibility of my means. Exceed not your own rule of fifty thousand pounds for the household: if you can make it less, I will account it for good service; and that you may see I will not spare mine own person, I have sent with this bearer a note of the superfluous charges concerning my mouth, having had the happy opportunities of this messenger in an errand so nearly concerning his place. In this, I expect no answer in word, or writing, but only the real performance, for a beginning, to relieve me out of my miseries. For now the ball is at your feet, and the world shall bear me witness, that I have put you fairly to it; and so praying God to bless your labours, I bid you heartily farewell.

Your own,

JAMES R.

James I. to the Lords of the Council. 1

My Lords,

I received from you yesternight the bluntest letter that, I think, ever king received from his

1 Cabala, p. 238.

council. Ye write that the green cloth will do nothing, and ye offer me no advice. Why are ye councillors, if ye offer no counsel ? An ordinary messenger might have brought me such an answer. It is my pleasure, that my charges be equal with my revenue; and it is just and necessary so to be; for this is a project must be made, and one of the main branches thereof is my house. This project is but to be offered unto you, and how it may be better laid to agree with my honour and contentment ye are to advise upon, and then have my consent. If this cannot be performed without diminishing the number of tables, diminished they must be; and if that cannot serve, two or three must be thrust in one. If the green cloth will not make a project for this, some other must do it; if ye cannot find them out, I must only remember two things-the time must be no more lost, and that there are twenty ways of abatement besides the house, if they be well looked into, and so farewell.

JAMES R.

Prince Charles to the Duke of Buckingham.1
Steenie,

I have nothing now to write to you, but to give you thanks both for the good council ye gave me, and for the event of it. The king gave me

1 This letter, which is curious as exhibiting Buckingham in the light of an accomplice in the prince's intrigues, was surreptitiously obtained by Hearne, from Browne Willis, as appears from a MS. note in a copy of the Vita Ricardi Secundi, 1729, in the Library of the Society of Antiquaries.

a good sharp potion, but you took away the working of it by the well relished comfites ye sent after it. I have met with the party that must not be named once already; and the colour of writing this letter shall make me meet with her on Saturday, although it is written the day being Thursday. So assuring you that the business goes safely on, I rest

[1618].

Your constant, loving friend,

CHARLES.

I hope ye will not show the king this letter, but put it in the safe custody of Mister Vulcan.

James I. to the Duke of Buckingham.2

My only sweet and dear child, I pray thee haste thee home to thy dear dad by sun-setting at the furthest, and forget not to make Digby give the Spanish ambassador assurance that I will leave nothing undone that I may form with justice and honour, in holding a mild hand upon the papists; only a way must be found to make But as for my Lady

their complaints come to my ears. Lake, I must both confess to have pronounced an unjust

1 Pretence. Middleton and other dramatists use the word in this

sense.

2 MS. Harl. 6987, art. 3.

3 The singular trial to which this letter alludes originated in a false report set about by Lady Lake and her daughter that there had been an incestuous intercourse between Lord Roos and Frances, the second wife of his grandfather, the Earl of Exeter. Lady Lake produced at the trial a written confession from the countess herself, which the sagacity of the king detected to be a forgery. The Spanish Ambassador interceded for Lady Lake, and hence this characteristic and laconic letter of James on the subject.

sentence and break my promise to my Lady Exeter in a matter of justice, if I grant her any ease at this time; besides, that this cause hath no respect to religion, except the Romish religion be composed of the seven deadly sins; for I dare swear she is guilty of them all. If Spain trouble me with suits of this nature both against my justice and honour, their friendship will be more burdensome than useful unto me, and so Lord send me comfortable and happy with thee this night.

JAMES R.

James I. to the Duke of Buckingham.1

My only sweet and dear child,

The Lord of Heaven bless thee this morning and thy thing my daughter;2 I pray thee, as thou lovest me, make her precisely observe those rules, let her never go in a coach upon the streets, nor never go fast in it. Let your mother keep all hasty news coming to her ears; let her not eat too much fruit, and hasten her out of London after we are gone; if thou be back by four in the afternoon, it will be good time, and prepare thee to be a guard to me, for keeping my back unbroken with business, before my going to the progress; and thus God send me a joyful and happy meeting with my sweet Steenie this evening.

JAMES R.

1 Harl. MS. No. 6011, p. 31.

2 The Duchess of Buckingham, who was enceinte at the time this note was written,

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