“May it please your Excellence,—­It might, perhaps, seem fit for me to seek out words to give your Excellence thanks for myself.  But, indeed, the only civility which it is proper for me to practice with so eminent a person is to obey you, and to perform honestly the work that you have set me about.  Therefore I shall use the time that your Lordship is pleased to allow me for writing, onely for that purpose for which you have given me it; that is, to render you an account of Mr. Dutton.  I have taken care to examine him several times in the presence of Mr. Oxenbridge, as those who weigh and tell over money before some witnesse ere they take charge of it; for I thought that there might be possibly some lightness in the coyn, or errour in the telling, which hereafter I should be bound to make good.  Therefore, Mr. Oxenbridge is the best to make your Excellency an impartial relation thereof:  I shall only say, that I shall strive according to my best understanding (that is, according to those rules your Lordship hath given me) to increase whatsoever talent he may have already.  Truly, he is of gentle and waxen disposition; and God be praised, I cannot say he hath brought with him any evil impression; and I shall hope to set nothing into his spirit but what may be of a good sculpture.  He hath in him two things that make youth most easy to be managed,—­modesty, which is the bridle to vice; and emulation, which is the spur to virtue.  And the care which your Excellence is pleased to take of him is no small encouragement and shall be so represented to him; but, above all, I shall labour to make him sensible of his duty to God; for then we begin to serve faithfully, when we consider He is our master.  And in this, both he and I owe infinitely to your Lordship, for having placed us in so godly a family as that of Mr. Oxenbridge, whose doctrine and example are like a book and a map, not only instructing the ear, but demonstrating to the eye, which way we ought to travell; and Mrs. Oxenbridge has looked so well to him, that he hath already much mended his complexion; and now she is ordering his chamber, that he may delight to be in it as often as his studys require.  For the rest, most of this time hath been spent in acquainting ourselves with him; and truly he is chearfull, and I hope thinks us to be good company.  I shall, upon occasion, henceforward inform your Excellence of any particularities in our little affairs, for so I esteem it to be my duty.  I have no more at present, but to give thanks to God for your Lordship, and to beg grace of Him, that I may approve myself, Your Excellency’s most humble and faithful servant,
                                                    ANDREW MARVELL.

   “Windsor, July 28, 1653.

   “Mr. Dutton[55:1] presents his most humble service to your
   Excellence.”

Something must now be said of Marvell’s literary productions during this period, 1652-1657.  It was in 1653 that he began his stormy career as an anonymous political poet and satirist.  The Dutch were his first victims, good Protestants though they were.  Marvell never liked the Dutch, and had he lived to see the Revolution must have undergone some qualms.