may be sure coming from sea, they will first fortifie, and learne the strength of the rebells, before they dare take the field: howsoever, as I know you will not lesson your care, neither your defences, and whatsoever lies in my power to do you, and the publique service, rest thereof assured. And to this I could add much more, but it may (as it is) suffice to present much of his abilities, in the penn, that he was his crafts master in forraigne intelligence, and for domestique affaires, as he was one of those that sate at the helme to the last of the Queene, so was he none of the lest in skill, and in the true use of the compasse, and so I shall onely vindicate the scandall of his death, and conclude him, for he departed at Saint Margarets, nere Marleborough, at his returne from Bathe, as my Lord ViceChamberlaine, my Lord Clifford, and myselfe, his sonne and sonne in law, and many more can witnesse, but that the day before he sounded on the way, and was taken out of his litter, and layed in his coach, was a truth, out of which that falsehood concerning the manner of his death had its derivation, though nothing to the purpose, or to the prejudice of his worth. P Sir Francis Vere. SIR Francis Vere was of that ancient, and of the most noble extract of the Earles of Oxford, and it may be a question whether the nobility of his house, or the honour of his achievements might most commend him, but that we have an authentique rule. Nam genus et proavos & quæ nos non fecimus ipsi; vix ea nostra voco. For though he was an honourable slip of that ancient tree of nobilitie, which was no disadvantage to his vertue, * Sir Francis Vere, who had given many signal proofs of his valour in the Low Countries, was, in 1596, made governor of Flushing by Queen Elizabeth. He afterwards gained immortal honour by his courage and conduct in that memorable battle near Nieuport, and for his brave defence of Ostend, for five months, against the Spanish Army. He was at the end of that term, relieved, and the town was taken after a siege of three years. He died 28 Aug. 1608. |