Your’s I received this morning, and no sooner cast my eyes upon the superscription, but I guess’d it to be written by one of my fellow kings, by the scrawl and ill spelling. I am glad your account of the other world agrees so well with the thoughts I always entertained about it: For, between friends, I never believ’d the stories the priests tell us of hell and purgatory. Ambition has ever been my religion; and my grandeur the only deity to which I have paid my adorations. If I have persecuted the protestants of my kingdom, ’twas not because I thought their perswasions worse than the _Romish_, but because I look’d upon them as a sort of dangerous, antimonarchical people; who, as they had fixed the crown upon my head, so they might as easily take it off, to serve their own party; and because by that means I secur’d the _Jesuits_, who must be own’d the best supporters of arbitrary power. Nay, to tell you the truth, my design in making you, by my emissaries, a stickler of popery, was only to create jealousies betwixt you and your people, so that ye might stand in need of my assistance, and be tributary to my power. I am sorry you are in the company of the three persons you mention. To get rid of their teasing and reproaching conversation, I advise you to propose a match at whisk, and if by casting knaves you can but get _Machiavel_ on your side, I am sure you will get the better of the other two. Since you mention my owning the prince your son as king of _Great Britain_, I must needs tell you, that neither he nor you, have reason to be beholden to me for it; for what I did was not to keep my promise to you, but only to serve my own ends; I considered, that an alliance being made between the _English_, the _Emperor_, and the _Dutch_, in order to reduce my exorbitant power, a war must inevitably follow. Now, I suppose, that after two or three years fighting, my finances will be pretty near exhausted, and that I shall be forced to condescend to give peace to _Europe_, as I did four years ago. The _Emperor_, I reckon, will be brought to sign and seal upon reasonable terms, and be content with having some small share in the _Spanist_ monarchy, as will the _Dutch_ also with a barrier in _Flanders_. These two less considerable enemies being quieted, how shall I pacify those I fear most, I mean the _English_? Why, by turning your dear son out of my kingdom, as I formerly did you and your brother. Not that I will wholly abandon him neither: no, you may rest assured that I will re-espouse his quarrel, as soon as I shall find an opportunity to make him instrumental to the advancement of my greatness. I am obliged to cardinal _Richlieu_ for the concern he shews for the honour of _France_, and will not fail to make use of his advice, as far as my running cash will let me. But I am somewhat puzzled how to manage matters in _England_ at the next sessions; for my agent _P----n_, by taking his leave in a publick tavern, of three of our best friends, has