“Sir, your most real affectionate friend, “and humble servant, “WORCESTER. “Christmas Day, 25th of Dec. 1665. “Because the profit accruing from my Water-commanding Engine may seem uncertain, I humbly offer in lieu thereof and in token of my gratitude, a judgment of ten thousand pounds for the payment of one thousand pounds a year for four years, at the disposal of her Grace, and two hundred pounds per annum at yours; so their Graces be pleased cheerfully to sign the letter, and positively to own them and me to be their perpetual servant, not doubting then to find ways more efficaciously to testify my reality and devotion to them if accepted of, and thus obliged to them and you. “WORCESTER.” Whether the following is the draft of a letter, proposed in the preceding communication, is uncertain; it is however in a contemporary handwriting, and, therefore, may be the very letter he offered to submit for approval.[D] It runs thus:-- “MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, “Upon my Lord of Worcester’s speaking to my husband for his letter to your Majesty, and laying open his sad condition, there comes into my mind a petition from his Lady to the Speaker ready to adjourn the House in Cromwell’s time, without relief to her, but upon her petition, as here enclosed, Worcester House was granted her. God forbid a greater hardness should possess your Majesty’s heart, our most gracious King, than did those regicides to one they took for their enemy; and I do, therefore, with more than confidence in remembrance of my Lady’s former pressures and miseries make myself a party with my Lord Marquis, in his most humble suit to your Majesty, in my Lord Powis his behalf, that he may not be frustrated of what the last King entitled him, of being created Earl, because it came through my Lord Marquis his hands, but further likewise to bestow a Baron’s patent upon a friend of my Lord Marquis, for both which I become a suitor with his Lordship, and beg pardon if I become more importunate to your Majesty in this case, than for myself in anything, who do already acknowledge most thankfully many great favours done to me, “Your Majesty’s most humble servant.” The following letter it would appear was addressed to the Duke of Albemarle:-- “MAY IT PLEASE YOUR GRACE,