cause to your censure only. The true causes I have not attended you, according to direction, are that my counsel cannot be in London before the term, and inability through the infirmity of the gout sometime intermingled with an ague.-From Fubrooke, this third of January, 1598.

Signed. Seal. 1 p. (176. 35.)

SIR GEORGE CARY to the EARL of ESSEX.

1598-9, Jan. 3.-According to your lordship's direction I have sent my son to follow your lordship in these Irish wars, or otherwise to be commanded as you shall best like. Shortly upon the beginning of the next term I will wait on you myself.-Cockington, this 3 of January, 1598.

Holograph. Seal. p. (176. 36.)

MARTIN CROFT to SIR ROBERT CECIL.

1598-9, Jan. 4.-Hearing that you have a cause against me greatly touching my credit, I write to protest my innocence and ask to be allowed to purge myself before you. I protest I never suspected that any man of mine was bearing himself that way until last Midsummer, when I had a greyhound taken out of my house by my own man to Sir Henry Coke's men, who were his companions in their hunting; and then boulting it forth, I wrote to Sir Henry Coke, saying that I understood his men and mine had been in Hatfield wood in the night coursing and there spoiled my dog, and I referred the matter to him. From that time until these gross abuses came to light I never suspected anything at all.-My house in London, 4 Jan., 1598.

Holograph. Seal. 1 p. (58. 83.)

RICHARD [BANCROFT], Bishop of London, and others, to the PRIVY COUNCIL.

1598-9, Jan. 4.-We have examined Robert Wiseman touching the escape of Lyster and Fletcher out of the Marshalsea, and though he denies it, we find in his examination reason to believe that he was privy to it.-The Palace of London, 4 January, 1598. Signed: Ric. London. Thomas Gerrard. Richard Martyn. Ric. Topclyffe. p. (58. 84.)

RA. ASSHETON to SIR ROBERT CECIL.

1598-9, Jan. 4.-On the subject of a complaint of Mrs. Talbot against him as executor of her husband's will.-4 January, 1598. Signed. Seal. 1 p. (58. 85.)

The EARL of ESSEX to LORD WILLOUGHBY.

1598-9, Jan. 4.-Noble Lord, you had heard from me ere this but that I durst not commit my letters to the ordinary hazard of a running packet, and I was loth to send away this messenger

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to ever vistorias is the least koon ton ako naguilat me; for without an enemy, the "OLS aLes our armies, and if they live, yet V maksak nakedness makes them lose both heart and strength.

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We went over, get there will be no means to carry 4765 all the re better endured than to have a Hanno a Cato at Rome, barking at him that is 4 deg denming his life for his country abroad. All those chuck Fumble to see, I do now foresee. For the war is d the rebel successful; that only worthy to be undertaken: the supplies uncertain; Huhta me le proform as much as shall lie in me or depend

upon me, and to show the world that my endeavours were more than ordinary, when the state that set me out must conspire with the enemy against me. Too ill success will be dangerous; let them fear that who allow excuses, or can be content to overlive their honour. Too good will be envious; I will never forswear virtue for fear of ostracism. The Court is the centre; but methinks it is the fairer choice to command armies than honours. In the meantime enemies may be advanced; so I show who should be, let fortune show who be. These are my private problems and nightly disputations, which from your lordship, whom I account another myself, I cannot hide. Use them according to their nature and their author's purpose, that is, to commit them to no other eyes than your own.-4 January, '98.

Copy. Endorsed :-"Copy of my Lord's letter to the Lord Willoughby." 2 pp. (58. 86.)

JOHN BASADONNA to the EARL of ESSEX.

1598-9, Jan. 5.-About a year ago Gherard de Malines, a Dutch (Belga) merchant, and an English merchant, Robert Brombley, chartered my ship called the "Experience" for a voyage from London to Lisbon, Venice, Crete, and so thence to London. I gave them all assistance and letters to the Venetians at Lisbon, and they sailed thither under the Venetian flag. At Lisbon they were kindly treated by the Venetian merchants, and took on board a valuable cargo. But then, on the ground that all English sailors who came to Naples were being arrested and sent to the galleys, they came back to England without finishing their voyage. When I protested against this, they flattered me, and yesterday morning put a notice on the doors of the Royal Exchange in the name of the captain claiming that the cargo should be adjudged to them as Spanish goods. I therefore applied to you to move the Queen for an order that the ship with another crew might proceed on her proper voyage and that the offenders might be punished. And this, considerations of policy and justice alike make me expect to obtain.-London, 5 January, 1598.

Latin. Holograph. 13 pp. (58. 87.)

WILLIAM BECHER to SIR ROBERT CECIL.

1598-9, Jan 6.-In this matter of Captain Brett's I am very sorry I cannot content the Lords. I would (though not my debt) rather pay treble than trouble you in this way; but in view of my necessity, I must ask you to favour my petition to the most honourable Table.-6 January, 1598.

Holograph. Seal. p. (58. 88.)

FRANCES, LADY BURGH to SIR ROBERT CECIL.

1598-9, Jan. 6.-I have been often told in my misery to take relief by your mediation to her Majesty, and have found well disposed for the love you bare my Lord and the remorse you took

of the manifold mishaps befallen me by his untimely death in the Queen's service. I am now suing for a grant, for the relief of myself, my son and my daughters, of the Earl of Lennox his lands, (now to be united to the Exchequer revenues) of a lease for forty or fifty years of two or three hundred pounds a year, paying the rent reserved and such fine as may be proper. There are above £3,000 a year to be disposed of. The Queen was not used to ask more than seven or eight years' rent as fine, and I would ask for the mitigation of that. If this be granted, it will be the last suit I will ever make to the Queen. I protest my pension doth not find me a poor "dite" [? diet], far unanswerable to the former course of my life and my children's education. Whence then must come heavy law expenses, cost of apparel, means for my daughters' advancement as they grow to years, and all other necessaries amounting to a far greater sum than the former? Consider my state, with these depending on me, and that if I die before the Queen grant my suit, they all may be stage players or beg for any friend I have.-6 January.

Signed. Seal. 14 pp. (58. 89.)

RICHARD LOWTHER to SIR JOHN STANHOPE.

1598-9, Jan. 6.-Understanding that Sir Robert Cecil would have had Andrew Hilton taken, I have caused my son William to take him at a dinner where many of the gentlemen were. If I may be maintained we shall take a greater traitor. So fearing to write with my own hand I take leave.-Lowther, 6 Jan., '98.

Holograph. 1 p. (58. 90.)

ADRIAN OST to SIR ROBERT CECIL.

1598-9, Jan. 7.-My pay in the Low Countries having been taken away, upon the allowance of my petition by the Lords of the Privy Council the Queen signified to me that I should have a pension out of the exchequer. I enclose a warrant for the same. and would ask you to have it dispatched yourself. My state is too poor to let me await the uncertain audience of a Master of Requests.-7 Jan., 1598.

Signed. Endorsed:-"Captain Ost to "Captain Ost to my Master." p. (58. 93.)

SIR THOMAS EGERTON, Lord Keeper, to the EARL of ESSEX.

1598-9, Jan. 7.-I return with most humble thanks these letters. When I am well aired and smoked and dried, I know not what I may be fit for. But such dry victual, if it serve for anything, is for Lent stuff or term provision for poor hungry suitors; it cannot fit the taste of the Court unless it be to give an appetite to dainty stomachs. I will not fail by some mean or other to present from time to time my humblest duty and desire to wait upon her Majesty, but that must be when I am called, or, at least,