HAving receiv'd the sorrowful Intelligence of your Lordships late mis­fortune, in being Taken into Custody, I can forbear no longer to Condole the unhappy Circumstances, I am inform'd you lye now under; But being willing to afford your Lordship what Consolation, the promise of a Holy Fathers care over your troubled Soul, can give you, I here assure you, I have made Intercession to his Holiness, and with great diffi­culty have procur'd you a general pardon, Sign'd with his own hand, for all those Manifold black Sins and Enormities you have been Guilty of, through the illegal Execution of that Honourable Authority, His Majesty was pleas'd (for your great service to the Romish Church) to confer upon you.

And knowing 'twas the custom of your Lordship to set a-part New-Years Day for the Reception of those obscure presents, which oftentimes altered the property of a case, and made a bad cause a good one, by placing Justice on the wrong side the hedge; I have therefore thought it convenient to inclose the Pardon in this Epistle, and entreat your Lordship to accept it, as a New-Years-Gift, Sincerely intended as a Benefit to your great Soul; and to discharge you of the weight of those premedi­tated Crimes, which we fear double the oppression of your Lordships present calami­ties; I must confess there is abundance to be said in Vindication of what the World Taxes, as a great fault upon you, for who would covet to be advanc'd to Honourable offices of State, without a private end of making an advantage equal to its Grandure, to buoy up the desire of being still Greater, and Ambition incident to most Great Men, who have rais'd their Fortune like your Lordship.

I am very much dissatisfied, to think your Lordship (being a Man accounted of so great Pollicy, and Judgment) should not take a more timely Care to secure your Per­son at this Juncture, than I perceive you did. And when you had made so great a step to your preservation, as to Cast Anchor privately in Rope Ally, you must be so indescreet upon a small Bussle in the place, to be peeping, by which I understand you were discovered; and now according to the Old English Proverb, I fear They will make You pay for your peeping: But pray, if the Laws should deal so severely by you, as to force you to dye a Martyr, and disunite a wise Noddle, from those shoulders, which have bore so many Poor Mens Curses, and Rich Mens Slanders: let me entreat you to dye with a Good Courage, for you shall only call at Purgatory for fashions sake, and continue short time e're our Prayers shall convey you to a place (if the Curses of the people of England prevent not) where you shall enjoy the full of those blessings lay'd up by the Church, for such Worthy Agents as your Lordship: Being the Care of him, who remains till Death. (which I fear will meet you in a short time)