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[fol. 44r] My right honorable good L. I was att the Cowrt with Master Secretary Walsingham, according to the directyons that it plesed your L. to give me, whom I fownd very willeng for your L. sake, & for the good oppynion that he had of me, to favor me & further me in all that he cowd & seing that I stode uppon so good termes as mariaige, & so good a mariaige withall as I pretended, her majestys inclynatyon to cowntenance & hellp me therin he sayd cowd nott be butt easy & good of it sellf, having deserved so well of her as I had, & conseqwently he allowed of mi other sute, that a scope might be granted me to travayll abowtt mi busynes without troble or arrest; withowt which the credyt & effect of ani matter besyde, were clene taken awaye: Butt to this he protested, that his credyte was growen so weke with her majestie as bothe he & his fellow were discharged from delyng in ani more sutes; whose office were wont to have that degree to preferre most cawses & sutes to the prince & now was transferred to others; Butt he promised with grett affectyon & tendernes, that when your L. cam to the Cowrt, that he wolld conferre with you: which waye I might be best hollpen & dellt for; which now I am humbly to comend to your L. seing ye be both att the Cowrt together & so honorably enclyned to hellp me; that ye will vowchsave to shew your goodnes therin, while the possibility remaynes for me to do good therby. / I have payd 800li dett, I have never a grote lyving in the worlld, butt her majestie promised me a C. markes a yere, which be things to intreatt the more for me. And now I am towards this mariaige & in hope to spede, yf I have ani convenyent cowntenance & hellp, the benefitte wherof shalbe her majesties to employe it & mi lyfe withall in her servyce, to the last peny & droppe of blood. / And bycause [fol. 44v] that to be in forme of a prisoner still is a strange kinde of lyfe, as your L. most fatherly tolld me, or to have a protectyon as obloqwious to the worlld (having a desier to live in som poor credite & to satysfye all men) I devised, with master Secretarye, that yf I might obteyne of her majestie a passeport, as though I were employed in some honest degree of service by her towards Ireland, with a lymitacion of v or vj moneths to do such things here of her majesties as I had in charge beffore I went: This wolld preserve me from Arrests, give me scope to do mi busynes, make me hable (by this brethe) to paye the remnant of mi detts, & be of som credyt to me towards the acheving of mi other cawses, without coste to her majestie. which is the som of mi humble & lowly petycyon to your L. whom God long preserve to his honor & glorye. From London the xij ^th^ of december. 1575. your L. most humbly W. Herlle.