Though I may goe whither and when I will for anie necessity you have of my service, yet there is a necessity of good manners that obliges me as yo^r servant to lett you knowe att all times where to find me. Wee goe out of Paris 3 weekes hence, or sooner, towards Venice, but by what way I knowe not, because the ordinary high way through the territory of Milan is encumbered with the warre betweene the French and the Spaniards. Howsoever, wee have to be there in October next. If you require anie service that I can doe there, it may please you to convey your command by Devonshire house. But if you command me nothing, I have forbidden my letters to look for answer: their busines being only to informe and to lett you knowe that the image of your noblenes decayes not in my memory, but abides fresh to keepe me eternally Your THO. HOBBS. ----- Footnote 2: This letter is to be found in the British Museum, amongst the Lansdowne MSS. 238, entitled “a collection of letters to and from persons of eminence in the reigns of Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, made by some person in the service of Sir Gervas Clifton”. It is without date: but the allusion to the war between France and Spain, and the passage in the VITA THO. HOBBES, “Anno sequente qui erat Christi 1629, rogatus a nobilissimo viro domino Gervasio Clifton”, &c. (p. xiv), show that it must have been written in either 1629 or 1630. ----- II. TO A FRIEND IN ENGLAND. WORTHY SIR, I have been behind hand with you a long time for a letter I received of yours at Angers, that place affording nothing wherewith to pay a debt of that kind, all matter of news being sooner known in England than here: and the news you writ me was of that kind, that none from England could be more welcome, because it concerned the honour of Welbeck and Clifton, two houses in which I am very much obliged. Monsieur having given the slip to the Spaniards at Bruxelles, came to the King about ten days ago at St. Germains, where he was received with great joy. The next day the Cardinal entertained him at Ruelle: and the day after that he went to Limours, where he is now, and from thence he goes away shortly to Bloys, to stay there this winter. The Cardinal of Lyons is going to Rome to treat about the annulling of Monsieur’s marriage, which is here by Parliament declared void, but yet they require the sentence of the Pope. There goes somebody thither on the part of his wife, to get the marriage approved: but who that is, I ’know not. The Swedish party in Germany is in low estate, but the French prepare a great army for those parts, pretending to defend the places which the Swedes have put into the King of France his protection, whereof Philipsbourgh is one; a place of importance for the Lower Palatinate. This is all the French news.