f in my stead, and examine upon what principles I
could ever act against either such a queen, or such a benefactor; and
what must my own heart reproach me with, what blushes must have covered
my face when I had looked in, and called myself ungrateful to him that
saved me thus from distress, or her that fetched me out of the dungeon,
and gave my family relief? Let any man who knows what principles are,
what engagements of honour and gratitude are, make his case his own, and
say what I could have done more or less than I have done.

I must go on a little with the detail of the obligation, and then I
shall descend to relate what I have done, and what I have not done, in
the case.

Being delivered from the distress I was in, her majesty, who was not
satisfied to do me good by a single act of her bounty, had the goodness
to think of taking me into her service, and I had the honour to be
employed in several honourable, though secret services, by the
interposition of my first benefactor, who then appeared as a member in
the public administration.

I had the happiness to discharge myself in all these trusts so much to
the satisfaction of those who employed me, though oftentimes with
difficulty and danger, that my lord treasurer Godolphin, whose memory I
have always honoured, was pleased to continue his favour to me, and to
do me all good offices with her majesty, even after an unhappy breach
had separated him from my first benefactor, the particulars of which may
not be improper to relate; and as it is not an injustice to any, so I
hope it will not be offensive.

When, upon that fatal breach, the secretary of state was dismissed from
the service, I looked upon myself as lost; it being a general rule in
such cases, when a great officer falls, that all who came in by his
interest fall with him; and resolving never to abandon the fortunes of
the man to whom I owed so much of my own, I quitted the usual
applications which I had made to my lord treasurer.

But my generous benefactor, when he understood it, frankly told me that
I should by no means do so; "For," said he, in the most engaging terms,
"my lord treasurer will employ you in nothing but what is for the public
service, and agreeably to your own sentiments of things; and besides, it
is the queen you are serving, who has been very good to you. Pray, apply
yourself as you used to do; I shall not take it ill from you in the
least."

Upon this, I went to wait on my lord-t