"
Public patronage and public employment were at an end for him. His
petitions to the King and Buckingham ceased to be for office, but for
the clearing of his name and for the means of living. It is piteous to
read the earnestness of his requests. "Help me (dear Sovereign lord and
master), pity me so far as that I who have borne a bag be not now in my
age forced in effect to bear a wallet." The words are from a
carefully-prepared and rhetorical letter which was not sent, but they
express what he added to a letter presenting the _De Augmentis; "det
Vestra Majestas obolum Belisario_." Again, "I prostrate myself at your
Majesty's feet; I your ancient servant, now sixty-four years old in age,
and three years and five months old in misery. I desire not from your
Majesty means, nor place, nor employment, but only after so long a time
of expiation, a complete and total remission of the sentence of the
Upper House, to the end that blot of ignominy may be removed from me,
and from my memory and posterity, that I die not a condemned man, but
may be to your Majesty, as I am to God, _nova creatura_.
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