It was not till a year after this promise that he resigned.

On the 7th of March, 1616/17, Bacon received the seals.

He expresses his obligations to Villiers, now Lord Buckingham, in the following letter: "MY DEAREST LORD,--It is both in cares and kindness that small ones float up to the tongue, and great ones sink down into the heart with silence.

Therefore I could speak little to your Lordship to-day, neither had I fit time; but I must profess thus much, that in this day's work you are the truest and perfectest mirror and example of firm and generous friendship that ever was in court.

And I shall count every day lost, wherein I shall not either study your well-doing in thought, or do your name honour in speech, or perform you service in deed.