To all the persons of quality above-mentioned, the king gave considerable presents, besides their pensions. To the Lord Howard, besides his pension, he gave, to my certain knowledge, in less than two years’ time, in money and plate, above twenty-four thousand crowns; and to the Lord Hastings, who was King Edward’s chamberlain, he gave at one time one thousand silver marks in plate; and all the receipts of every Englishman of quality, except the Lord Hastings, are still to be seen in the chamber of accounts at Paris. This Lord Hastings was at that time High Chamberlain of England (an office of great reputation, and executed singly by one man). It was with great difficulty and solicitation, that he was made one of the king’s pensioners, and I was the cause of it: for at the time when I was in the Duke of Burgundy’s service, I had brought him over to his interest, and he allowed him a pension of a thousand crowns a year.[7] Upon my telling our king what I had done, he employed me to try what I could do to bring him over to his interest; for he had been his particular enemy in the Duke of Burgundy’s time, after which he became a favourer of the young Princess of Burgundy, and was once like to have prevailed with the King of England to cross the seas again to assist that princess. I began our amity by letters; the king granted him a pension of two thousand crowns per annum, which was double what had been paid him by the duke, and sent one of the stewards of his house, called Peter Clairet[8], with it; giving him express orders to take his receipt, that hereafter it might appear upon record, that the lord chamberlain, chancellor, admiral, master of the horse, and several other great lords of England, had been at the same time pensioners to the King of France. This Peter Clairet was a very cunning man, and was privately admitted to the lord chamberlain, at his house in London; and having delivered his compliments from the king, he presented his two thousand crowns in gold (for to foreign lords of great quality the king never gave any other coin). The chamberlain having received the gold, Peter Clairet desired his lordship would be pleased to give him a receipt for it; the lord chamberlain scrupling to do it, he repeated his request, and entreated him that he would give him only three lines under his hand, directed to the king his master, lest his majesty should think he had embezzled it himself, for he was of a very suspicious temper. The lord chamberlain seeing he persisted (though his demand was but reasonable), replied, “Master Clairet, what you desire is not unreasonable, but this present proceeds from your master’s generosity, not from any request of mine; if you have a mind I should receive it, you may put it into my sleeve, but neither letter nor acquittance will you have from me; for it shall never be said of me, that the High Chamberlain of England was pensioner to the King of France, nor shall my receipt be ever produced in his chamber of