Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/163

 prejudices His Majesty hath taken against me,' he writes to Mr. Oldenburg, one of the Secretaries of the Royal Society, 'are a great affliction. But because I am conscious of no kind of guilt, the more tolerable; notwithstanding I have been punished with the loss of near half my lands already. If His Majesty hath any sparks of kindness for me, try of him the particulars of my faults. If not, I will bear the burthen with as much patience and belief that others have abused him, as any subject he hath.' A quarrel with the Duke of Ormonde about some lands may have been the cause.

'Dear Cousin,' Sir William wrote to Sir Robert Southwell, 'you did in your late friendly letter blame me for not getting some terra firma in England. I answered you by an essay, shewing I had thought of your matter in earnest; and you sent me a paper wherewith—as with okum—I calked up the leaves of my Essay. You advised me in the same letter to compound my present law suites and prevent new ones. I answered you by telling what lawsuites I have; and wished I could prevent one for about 15,000l. against McGillicuddy, etc. You in your last promise that dear Neddy shall (I suppose when he is a Maynard or Hales) ferret McGillicuddy, but say nothing of it in the mean time. Cousin, hoping what I am now saying shall not recoyle and kill me, I tell you the Duke of Ormonde is David; but I am Uriah; my estate in Kerry is Bathsheba; you should bee Nathan, and then my estate would be the poor man's lamb. Nathan told David that he had Wives and Concubines enough, without taking Bathsheba from Uriah and without murdering Uriah, a worthy man, who had served him bravely in his wars and difficulties; as I had done the Duke and his interest before the King's restoration and now lately, to my great hazard. The Duke, his three sons and his servant, Sir G. L., gott more by the rebellion of Ireland and the King's restoration, than all the lands of Ireland were worth as they left it, and