order to undeceive prejudiced persons at present, as well as posterity;
I am persuaded in my own mind, as likewise by the advice of my oldest
and wisest friends, that I am doing my duty to God and man, by
endeavouring to set future ages right in their judgment of that happy
reign; and, as a faithful historian, I cannot suffer falsehoods to run
on any longer, not only against all appearance of truth as well as
probability, but even against those happy events, which owe their
success to the very measures then fixed in the general peace.

The materials for this History, besides what I have already mentioned, I
mean the confidence reposed in me for those four years, by the chief
persons in power, were extracted out of many hundred letters written by
our ambassadors abroad, and from the answers as well as instructions
sent them by our secretaries of state, or by the first minister the Earl
of Oxford. The former were all originals, and the latter copies entered
into books in the secretaries' office, out of both which I collected all
that I thought convenient; not to mention several Memorials given me by
the ministers at home. Further, I was a constant witness and observer of
all that passed; and entered every particular of any consequence upon
paper.

I was so far from having any obligation to the crown, that, on the
contrary, Her Majesty issued a proclamation, offering three hundred
pounds to any person who would discover the author of a certain short
treatise,[3] which the Queen well knew to have been written by me. I
never received one shilling from the minister, or any other present,
except that of a few books; nor did I want their assistance to support
me. I very often dined indeed with the treasurer and secretary; but, in
those days, that was not reckoned a bribe, whatever it may have been at
any time since. I absolutely refused to be chaplain to the Lord