ithal. He set upon me first. He writes out of a Spirit
of Revenge, with a great deal of Heat and Passion, and like a Man that
believ'd himself touch'd and wrong'd to the purpose. As for my part,
my Lord, I protest I write to you in cold Blood, I do so much scorn
the Injury that Sir _W._ affects to do me, that I should but laugh at
it, if my silence was not able to persuade you, and those persons
whose esteem of me doth do me so much honour, that I have but small
care of my reputation.

Sir _W._ hath shined a long time, 'tis true; but yet he hath borrowed
all his Splendour first of all from the protection of a Lord, whom he
betray'd at last, of whom he speaks too insolently in his Memoirs and
with abundance of Ingratitude; and then again he advanced himself by
the protection of certain other persons to whom he was devoted, to the
prejudice of his bounden Duty: _He did so well insinuate himself_
(that I may make use of the Terms he makes use of in speaking of me)
into the Favours and into the Confidence of those, near to whom it was
necessary for him to have access, that he might have been in a
capacity to render considerable Services to the King his Master, and
to his Country, if so be he had made better use of this advantage;
but he kept it just after the same manner as he had got it; that is to
say, that he often came short of exact Faithfulness and Loyalty, which
a Minister of State is obliged to maintain inviolably even in the
least Matters, that doth plainly appear in his Memoirs.

The late King of England _perceived_ it, and was so far convinced of
it, that he never made use of him in the last Commissions he committed
to his charge, to the States-General; but only out of Consideration of
the Acquaintance he had there, who made people conjecture that Sir
_W._ might have some Credit amongst the _Spaniards_, as well as in
_Holland_, as he himself assures us he had.

Neither was he employed, but only upon some Occasions, wherein one
would not employ a Man who was a Favourite of the Prince, or for whom
he had any value, or in whom he might confide; 'tis a Truth owned and
confess'd by Sir _W._ himself in his Memoirs; and a Man may judge of
it by the so opposite false steps, that he complains, they caused him
to make, and by all the things that were done contrary to the Measures
that he had taken, just as if the Court had had a mind to expose him.

Besides, the King slighted him after the Peace at _Nimeguen_, and laid