Howsoever, yet I must before the Eternal God clear her honour. And now in court a great person1sent for me divers times to attend her, which summons though I obeyed, yet God knoweth I declined coming to her as much as conveniently I could, without incurring her displeasure; and this I did not only for very honest reasons, but, to speak ingenuously, because that affection passed betwixt me and another lady (who I believe was the fairest of her time) as nothing could divert it. I had not been long in London, when a violent burning fever seized upon me, which brought me almost to my death, though at last I did by slow degrees recover my health; being thus upon my amendment, the Lord Lisle,3 afterwards Earl of Leicester, sent me word, that Sir John Ayres intended to kill me in my bed, and wished me to keep a guard upon my chamber and person; the same advertisement was confirmed by Lucy Countess of Bedford,* and the Lady Hoby shortly after. Here

1 Queen Anne (see p. 129).

5

2 This is in all probability the lady mentioned above on p. 85. No attempt at identification seems possible.

3 Robert Sidney, second son of Sir Henry Sidney, and younger brother of Sir Philip, was created Lord Sidney in 1603, Viscount Lisle in 1604, and Earl of Leicester in 1618. He died in 1626.

4 The wife of Edward Earl of Bedford, the well-known patroness of Ben Jonson, Drayton, and other poets.

5 Probably Anne, second wife of Sir Edward Hoby, a patron of Camden.

upon I thought fit to entreat Sir William Herbert, now Lord Powis,1 to go to Sir John Ayres, and tell him, that I marvelled much at the information given me by these great persons, and that I could. not imagine any sufficient ground hereof; howbeit, if he had anything to say to me in a fair and noble way, I would give him the meeting as soon as I had got strength enough to stand upon my legs; Sir William hereupon brought me so ambiguous and doubtful an answer from him, that whatsoever he meant, he would not declare yet his intention, which was really, as I found afterwards, to kill me any way that he could, since, as he said, though falsely, I had whored his wife. Finding no means thus to surprise me, he sent me a letter to this effect; that he desired to meet me somewhere, and that it might so fall out as I might return quietly again. To this I replied, that if he desired to fight with me upon equal terms, I should, upon assurance of the field and fair play, give him meeting when he did any way specify the cause, and that I did not think fit to come to him upon any other terms, having been sufficiently informed of his plots to assassinate me.

After this, finding he could take no advantage against me, then in a treacherous way he resolved

1 The eldest son of Sir Edward Herbert, second son of William, Earl of Pembroke (created 1651). He was created Lord Powis in 1629. He died in 1655.

to assassinate me in this manner; hearing I was to come to Whitehall on horseback with two lacqueys only, he attended my coming back in a place called Scotland Yard, at the hither end of Whitehall, as you come to it from the Strand, hiding himself here with four men armed on purpose to kill me. I took horse at Whitehall Gate, and passing by that place, he being armed with a sword and dagger, without giving me so much as the least warning, ran at me furiously, but instead of me wounded my horse in the brisket, as far as his sword could enter for the bone; my horse hereupon starting aside, he ran him again in the shoulder, which though it made the horse more timorous, yet gave me time to draw my sword. His men thereupon encompassed me, and wounded my horse in three places more; this made my horse kick and fling in that manner as his men durst not come near me; which advantage I took to strike at Sir John Ayres with all my force, but he warded the blow both with his sword and dagger; instead of doing him harm, I broke my sword within a foot of the hilt. Hereupon some passenger that knew me, and observing my horse bleeding in so many places, and so many men assaulting me, and my sword broken, cried to me several times, "Ride away, ride away;" but I, scorning a base flight upon what terms soever, instead thereof alighted as well as I could from my