splendour, posterity cannot be so ungrateful as to forget those, who, in the worst of times, have stood undaunted by their king and country, and, for the safeguard of both, have exposed themselves to the malice of false patriots, and the madness of an headstrong rabble.  But since this glorious work is yet unfinished, and though we have reason to hope well of the success, yet the event depends on the unsearchable providence of Almighty God, it is no time to raise trophies, while the victory is in dispute; but every man, by your example, to contribute what is in his power to maintain so just a cause, on which depends the future settlement and prosperity of three nations.  The pilot’s prayer to Neptune was not amiss in the middle of the storm:  “Thou mayest do with me, O Neptune, what thou pleasest, but I will be sure to hold fast the rudder.”  We are to trust firmly in the Deity, but so as not to forget, that he commonly works by second causes, and admits of our endeavours with his concurrence.  For our own parts, we are sensible, as we ought, how little we can contribute with our weak assistance.  The most we can boast of, is, that we are not so inconsiderable as to want enemies, whom we have raised to ourselves on no other account than that we are not of their number; and, since that is their quarrel, they shall have daily occasion to hate us more.  It is not, my lord, that any man delights to see himself pasquined and affronted by their inveterate scribblers; but, on the other side, it ought to be our glory, that themselves believe not of us what they write.  Reasonable men are well satisfied for whose sakes the venom of their party is shed on us; because they see, that at the same time our adversaries spare not those to whom they owe allegiance and veneration.  Their despair has pushed them to break those bonds; and it is observable, that the lower they are driven, the more violently they write; as Lucifer and his companions were only proud when angels, but grew malicious when devils.  Let them rail, since it is the only solace of their miseries, and the only revenge which, we hope, they now can take.  The greatest and the best of men are above their reach; and, for our meanness, though they assault us like footpads in the dark, their blows have done us little harm:  we yet live to justify ourselves in open day, to vindicate our loyalty to the government, and to assure your lordship, with all submission and sincerity, that we are

  YOUR LORDSHIP’S
    Most obedient, faithful servants,
      JOHN DRYDEN. 
      NAT.  LEE.

Footnotes: 
1.  Lawrence Hyde, created Earl of Rochester in 1682, was the second
   son of the famous Lord Clarendon, and affords a rare instance of
   the son of a disgraced minister recovering that favour at court,
   which had been withdrawn from his father.  He was now at the head of
   the Commissioners for the Treasury, and a patron of our poet; as
   appears from the terms of Dryden’s