Diary of Samuel Pepys, June 1667
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Samuel Pepys >> Diary of Samuel Pepys, June 1667
17th. Up, and to my office, where busy all the morning, particularly
setting my people to work in transcribing pieces of letters publique and
private, which I do collect against a black day to defend the office with
and myself. At noon dined at home, Mr. Hater with me alone, who do seem
to be confident that this nation will be undone, and with good reason:
Wishes himself at Hambrough, as a great many more, he says, he believes
do, but nothing but the reconciling of the Presbyterian party will save
us, and I am of his mind. At the office all the afternoon, where every
moment business of one kind or other about the fire-ships and other
businesses, most of them vexatious for want of money, the commanders all
complaining that, if they miss to pay their men a night, they run away;
seamen demanding money of them by way of advance, and some of Sir
Fretcheville Hollis's men, that he so bragged of, demanding their tickets
to be paid, or they would not work: this Hollis, Sir W. Batten and W. Pen
say, proves a very . . ., as Sir W. B. terms him, and the other called
him a conceited, idle, prating, lying fellow. But it was pleasant this
morning to hear Hollis give me the account what, he says, he told the King
in Commissioner Pett's presence, whence it was that his ship was fit
sooner than others, telling the King how he dealt with the several
Commissioners and agents of the Ports where he comes, offering Lanyon to
carry him a Ton or two of goods to the streights, giving Middleton an hour
or two's hearing of his stories of Barbadoes, going to prayer with Taylor,
and standing bare and calling, "If it please your Honour," to Pett, but
Sir W. Pen says that he tells this story to every body, and believes it to
be a very lie. At night comes Captain Cocke to see me, and he and I an
hour in the garden together. He tells me there have been great endeavours
of bringing in the Presbyterian interest, but that it will not do. He
named to me several of the insipid lords that are to command the armies
that are to be raised. He says the King and Court are all troubled, and
the gates of the Court were shut up upon the first coming of the Dutch to
us, but they do mind the business no more than ever: that the bankers, he
fears, are broke as to ready-money, though Viner had L100,000 by him when
our trouble begun: that he and the Duke of Albemarle have received into
their own hands, of Viner, the former L10,000, and the latter L12,000, in
tallies or assignments, to secure what was in his hands of theirs; and
many other great men of our. masters have done the like; which is no good
sign, when they begin to fear the main. He and every body cries out of
the office of the Ordnance, for their neglects, both at Gravesend and
Upnor, and everywhere else. He gone, I to my business again, and then
home to supper and to bed. I have lately played the fool much with our
Nell, in playing with her breasts. This night, late, comes a porter with
a letter from Monsieur Pratt, to borrow L100 for my Lord Hinchingbroke, to
enable him to go out with his troop in the country, as he is commanded;
but I did find an excuse to decline it. Among other reasons to myself,
this is one, to teach him the necessity of being a good husband, and
keeping money or credit by him.
18th. Up, and did this morning dally with Nell . . . which I was
afterward troubled for. To the office, and there all the morning. Peg
Pen come to see me, and I was glad of it, and did resolve to have tried
her this afternoon, but that there was company with elle at my home,
whither I got her. Dined at home, W. Hewer with me, and then to the
office, and to my Lady Pen's, and did find occasion for Peg to go home
with me to my chamber, but there being an idle gentleman with them, he
went with us, and I lost my hope. So to the office, and by and by word
was brought me that Commissioner Pett is brought to the Tower, and there
laid up close prisoner; which puts me into a fright, lest they may do the
same with us as they do with him. This puts me upon hastening what I am
doing with my people, and collecting out of my papers our defence. Myself
got Fist, Sir W. Batten's clerk, and busy with him writing letters late,
and then home to supper and to read myself asleep, after piping, and so to
bed. Great newes to-night of the blowing up of one of the Dutch greatest
ships, while a Council of War was on board: the latter part, I doubt, is
not so, it not being confirmed since; but the former, that they had a ship
blown up, is said to be true. This evening comes Sir G. Carteret to the
office, to talk of business at Sir W. Batten's; where all to be undone for
want of money, there being none to pay the Chest at their publique pay the
24th of this month, which will make us a scorn to the world. After he had
done there, he and I into the garden, and walked; and the greatest of our
discourse is, his sense of the requisiteness of his parting with his being
Treasurer of the Navy, if he can, on any good terms. He do harp upon
getting my Lord Bruncker to take it on half profit, but that he is not
able to secure him in paying him so much. But the thing I do advise him
to do by all means, and he resolves on it, being but the same counsel
which I intend to take myself. My Lady Jem goes down to Hinchingbroke to
lie down, because of the troubles of the times here. He tells me he is
not sure that the King of France will not annoy us this year, but that the
Court seems [to] reckon upon it as a thing certain, for that is all that I
and most people are afeard of this year. He tells me now the great
question is, whether a Parliament or no Parliament; and says the
Parliament itself cannot be thought able at present to raise money, and
therefore it will be to no purpose to call one. I hear this day poor
Michell's child is dead.
19th. Up, and to the office, where all the morning busy with Fist again,
beginning early to overtake my business in my letters, which for a post or
two have by the late and present troubles been interrupted. At noon comes
Sir W. Batten and [Sir] W. Pen, and we to [Sir] W. Pen's house, and there
discoursed of business an hour, and by and by comes an order from Sir R.
Browne, commanding me this afternoon to attend the Council-board, with all
my books and papers touching the Medway. I was ready [to fear] some
mischief to myself, though it appears most reasonable that it is to inform
them about Commissioner Pett. I eat a little bit in haste at Sir W.
Batten's, without much comfort, being fearful, though I shew it not, and
to my office and get up some papers, and found out the most material
letters and orders in our books, and so took coach and to the
Council-chamber lobby, where I met Mr. Evelyn, who do miserably decry our
follies that bring all this misery upon us. While we were discoursing
over our publique misfortunes, I am called in to a large Committee of the
Council: present the Duke of Albemarle, Anglesey, Arlington, Ashly,
Carteret, Duncomb, Coventry, Ingram, Clifford, Lauderdale, Morrice,
Manchester, Craven, Carlisle, Bridgewater. And after Sir W. Coventry's
telling them what orders His Royal Highness had made for the safety of the
Medway, I told them to their full content what we had done, and showed
them our letters. Then was Peter Pett called in, with the Lieutenant of
the Tower. He is in his old clothes, and looked most sillily. His charge
was chiefly the not carrying up of the great ships, and the using of the
boats in carrying away his goods; to which he answered very sillily,
though his faults to me seem only great omissions. Lord Arlington and
Coventry very severe against him; the former saying that, if he was not
guilty, the world would think them all guilty.
[Pett was made a scapegoat. This is confirmed by Marvel:
"After this loss, to relish discontent,
Some one must be accused by Parliament;
All our miscarriages on Pett must fall,
His name alone seems fit to answer all.
Whose counsel first did this mad war beget?
Who all commands sold through the Navy? Pett.
Who would not follow when the Dutch were beat?
Who treated out the time at Bergen? Pett.
Who the Dutch fleet with storms disabled met,
And, rifling prizes, them neglected? Pett.
Who with false news prevented the Gazette,
The fleet divided, writ for Ruhert? Pett.
Who all our seamen cheated of their debt?
And all our prizes who did swallow? Pett.
Who did advise no navy out to set?
And who the forts left unprepared? Pett.
Who to supply with powder did forget
Languard, Sheerness, Gravesend, and Upnor? Pett.
Who all our ships exposed in Chatham net?
Who should it be but the fanatick Pett?
Pett, the sea-architect, in making ships,
Was the first cause of all these naval slips.
Had he not built, none of these faults had been;
If no creation, there had been no sin
But his great crime, one boat away he sent,
That lost our fleet, and did our flight prevent."
Instructions to a Painter.--B]
The latter urged, that there must be some faults, and that the Admiral
must be found to have done his part. I did say an unhappy word, which I
was sorry for, when he complained of want of oares for the boats: and
there was, it seems, enough, and good enough, to carry away all the boats
with from the King's occasions. He said he used never a boat till they
were all gone but one; and that was to carry away things of great value,
and these were his models of ships; which, when the Council, some of them,
had said they wished that the Dutch had had them instead of the King's
ships, he answered, he did believe the Dutch would have made more
advantage of the models than of the ships, and that the King had had
greater loss thereby; this they all laughed at. After having heard him
for an hour or more, they bid him withdraw. I all this while showing him
no respect, but rather against him, for which God forgive me! for I mean
no hurt to him, but only find that these Lords are upon their own
purgation, and it is necessary I should be so in behalf of the office. He
being gone, they caused Sir Richard Browne to read over his minutes; and
then my Lord Arlington moved that they might be put into my hands to put
into form, I being more acquainted with such business; and they were so.
So I away back with my books and papers; and when I got into the Court it
was pretty to see how people gazed upon me, that I thought myself obliged
to salute people and to smile, lest they should think I was a prisoner
too; but afterwards I found that most did take me to be there to bear
evidence against P. Pett; but my fear was such, at my going in, of the
success of the day, that at my going in I did think fit to give T. Hater,
whom I took with me, to wait the event, my closet-key and directions where
to find L500 and more in silver and gold, and my tallys, to remove, in
case of any misfortune to me. Thence to Sir G. Carteret's to take my
leave of my Lady Jem, who is going into the country tomorrow; but she
being now at prayers with my Lady and family, and hearing here by Yorke,
the carrier, that my wife is coming to towne, I did make haste home to see
her, that she might not find me abroad, it being the first minute I have
been abroad since yesterday was se'ennight. It is pretty to see how
strange it is to be abroad to see people, as it used to be after a month
or two's absence, and I have brought myself so to it, that I have no great
mind to be abroad, which I could not have believed of myself. I got home,
and after being there a little, she come, and two of her fellow-travellers
with her, with whom we drunk: a couple of merchant-like men, I think, but
have friends in our country. They being gone, I and my wife to talk, who
did give me so bad an account of her and my father's method in burying of
our gold, that made me mad: and she herself is not pleased with it, she
believing that my sister knows of it. My father and she did it on Sunday,
when they were gone to church, in open daylight, in the midst of the
garden; where, for aught they knew, many eyes might see them: which put me
into such trouble, that I was almost mad about it, and presently cast
about, how to have it back again to secure it here, the times being a
little better now; at least at White Hall they seem as if they were, but
one way or other I am resolved to free them from the place if I can get
them. Such was my trouble at this, that I fell out with my wife, that
though new come to towne, I did not sup with her, nor speak to her
tonight, but to bed and sleep.
20th. Up, without any respect to my wife, only answering her a question
or two, without any anger though, and so to the office, where all the
morning busy, and among other things Mr. Barber come to me (one of the
clerks of the Ticket office) to get me to sign some tickets, and told me
that all the discourse yesterday, about that part of the town where he
was, was that Mr. Pett and I were in the Tower; and I did hear the same
before. At noon, home to dinner, and there my wife and I very good
friends; the care of my gold being somewhat over, considering it was in
their hands that have as much cause to secure it as myself almost, and so
if they will be mad, let them. But yet I do intend to, send for it away.
Here dined Mercer with us, and after dinner she cut my hair, and then I
into my closet and there slept a little, as I do now almost every day
after dinner; and then, after dallying a little with Nell, which I am
ashamed to think of, away to the office. Busy all the afternoon; in the
evening did treat with, and in the end agree; but by some kind of
compulsion, with the owners of six merchant ships, to serve the King as
men-of-war. But, Lord! to see how against the hair it is with these men
and every body to trust us and the King; and how unreasonable it is to
expect they should be willing to lend their ships, and lay out 2 or L300 a
man to fit their ships for new voyages, when we have not paid them half of
what we owe them for their old services! I did write so to Sir W.
Coventry this night. At night my wife and I to walk and talk again about
our gold, which I am not quiet in my mind to be safe, and therefore will
think of some way to remove it, it troubling me very much. So home with
my wife to supper and to bed, miserable hot weather all night it was.
21st. Up and by water to White Hall, there to discourse with [Sir] G.
Carteret and Mr. Fenn about office business. I found them all aground,
and no money to do anything with. Thence homewards, calling at my
Tailor's to bespeak some coloured clothes, and thence to Hercules Pillars,
all alone, and there spent 6d. on myself, and so home and busy all the
morning. At noon to dinner, home, where my wife shows me a letter from
her father, who is going over sea, and this afternoon would take his leave
of her. I sent him by her three Jacobuses in gold, having real pity for
him and her. So I to my office, and there all the afternoon. This day
comes news from Harwich that the Dutch fleete are all in sight, near 100
sail great and small, they think, coming towards them; where, they think,
they shall be able to oppose them; but do cry out of the falling back of
the seamen, few standing by them, and those with much faintness. The like
they write from Portsmouth, and their letters this post are worth reading.
Sir H. Cholmly come to me this day, and tells me the Court is as mad as
ever; and that the night the Dutch burned our ships the King did sup with
my Lady Castlemayne, at the Duchess of Monmouth's, and there were all mad
in hunting of a poor moth. All the Court afraid of a Parliament; but he
thinks nothing can save us but the King's giving up all to a Parliament.
Busy at the office all the afternoon, and did much business to my great
content. In the evening sent for home, and there I find my Lady Pen and
Mrs. Lowther, and Mrs. Turner and my wife eating some victuals, and there
I sat and laughed with them a little, and so to the office again, and in
the evening walked with my wife in the garden, and did give Sir W. Pen at
his lodgings (being just come from Deptford from attending the dispatch of
the fire-ships there) an account of what passed the other day at Council
touching Commissioner Pett, and so home to supper and to bed.
22nd. Up, and to my office, where busy, and there comes Mrs. Daniel. . .
At the office I all the morning busy. At noon home to dinner, where
Mr. Lewes Phillips, by invitation of my wife, comes, he coming up to town
with her in the coach this week, and she expected another gentleman, a
fellow-traveller, and I perceive the feast was for him, though she do not
say it, but by some mistake he come not, so there was a good dinner lost.
Here we had the two Mercers, and pretty merry. Much talk with Mr.
Phillips about country business, among others that there is no way for me
to purchase any severall lands in Brampton, or making any severall that is
not so, without much trouble and cost, and, it may be, not do it neither,
so that there is no more ground to be laid to our Brampton house. After
dinner I left them, and to the office, and thence to Sir W. Pen's, there
to talk with Mrs. Lowther, and by and by we hearing Mercer and my boy
singing at my house, making exceeding good musique, to the joy of my
heart, that I should be the master of it, I took her to my office and
there merry a while, and then I left them, and at the office busy all the
afternoon, and sleepy after a great dinner. In the evening come Captain
Hart and Haywood to me about the six merchant-ships now taken up for
men-of-war; and in talk they told me about the taking of "The Royal
Charles;" that nothing but carelessness lost the ship, for they might have
saved her the very tide that the Dutch come up, if they would have but
used means and had had but boats: and that the want of boats plainly lost
all the other ships. That the Dutch did take her with a boat of nine men,
who found not a man on board her, and her laying so near them was a main
temptation to them to come on; and presently a man went up and struck her
flag and jacke, and a trumpeter sounded upon her "Joan's placket is torn,"
that they did carry her down at a time, both for tides and wind, when the
best pilot in Chatham would not have undertaken it, they heeling her on
one side to make her draw little water: and so carried her away safe.
They being gone, by and by comes Sir W. Pen home, and he and I together
talking. He hath been at Court; and in the first place, I hear the Duke
of Cambridge is dead; a which is a great loss to the nation, having, I
think, never an heyre male now of the King's or Duke's to succeed to the
Crown. He tells me that they do begin already to damn the Dutch, and call
them cowards at White Hall, and think of them and their business no better
than they used to do; which is very sad. The King did tell him himself,
which is so, I was told, here in the City, that the City, hath lent him
L10,000, to be laid out towards securing of the River of Thames; which,
methinks, is a very poor thing, that we should be induced to borrow by
such mean sums. He tells me that it is most manifest that one great thing
making it impossible for us to have set out a fleete this year, if we
could have done it for money or stores, was the liberty given the
beginning of the year for the setting out of merchant-men, which did take
up, as is said, above ten, if not fifteen thousand seamen: and this the
other day Captain Cocke tells me appears in the council-books, that is the
number of seamen required to man the merchant ships that had passes to go
abroad. By and by, my wife being here, they sat down and eat a bit of
their nasty victuals, and so parted and we to bed.
23rd (Lord's day). Up to my chamber, and there all the morning reading in
my Lord Coke's Pleas of the Crowne, very fine noble reading. After church
time comes my wife and Sir W. Pen his lady and daughter; and Mrs. Markham
and Captain Harrison (who come to dine with them), by invitation end dined
with me, they as good as inviting themselves. I confess I hate their
company and tricks, and so had no great pleasure in [it], but a good
dinner lost. After dinner they all to church, and I by water alone to
Woolwich, and there called on Mr. Bodham: and he and I to see the batterys
newly raised; which, indeed, are good works to command the River below the
ships that are sunk, but not above them. Here I met with Captain Cocke
and Matt. Wren, Fenn, and Charles Porter, and Temple and his wife. Here
I fell in with these, and to Bodham's with them, and there we sat and
laughed and drank in his arbour, Wren making much and kissing all the day
of Temple's wife. It is a sad sight to see so many good ships there sunk
in the River, while we would be thought to be masters of the sea. Cocke
says the bankers cannot, till peace returns, ever hope to have credit
again; so that they can pay no more money, but people must be contented to
take publick security such as they can give them; and if so, and they do
live to receive the money thereupon, the bankers will be happy men. Fenn
read me an order of council passed the 17th instant, directing all the
Treasurers of any part of the King's revenue to make no payments but such
as shall be approved by the present Lords Commissioners; which will, I
think, spoil the credit of all his Majesty's service, when people cannot
depend upon payment any where. But the King's declaration in behalf of
the bankers, to make good their assignments for money, is very good, and
will, I hope, secure me. Cocke says, that he hears it is come to it now,
that the King will try what he can soon do for a peace; and if he cannot,
that then he will cast all upon the Parliament to do as they see fit: and
in doing so, perhaps, he may save us all. The King of France, it is
believed, is engaged for this year;
[Louis XIV. was at this time in Flanders, with his queen, his
mistresses, and all his Court. Turenne commanded under him. Whilst
Charles was hunting moths at Lady Castlemaine's, and the English
fleet was burning, Louis was carrying on the campaign with vigour.
Armentieres was taken on the 28th May; Charleroi on the 2nd June,
St. Winox on the 6th, Fumes on the 12th, Ath on the 16th, Toumay on
the 24th; the Escarpe on the 6th July, Courtray on the 18th,
Audenarde on the 31st; and Lisle on the 27th August.--B.]
so that we shall be safe as to him. The great misery the City and kingdom
is like to suffer for want of coals in a little time is very visible, and,
is feared, will breed a mutiny; for we are not in any prospect to command
the sea for our colliers to come, but rather, it is feared, the Dutch may
go and burn all our colliers at Newcastle; though others do say that they
lie safe enough there. No news at all of late from Bredagh what our
Treaters do. By and by, all by water in three boats to Greenwich, there
to Cocke's, where we supped well, and then late, Wren, Fenn, and I home by
water, set me in at the Tower, and they to White Hall, and so I home, and
after a little talk with my wife to bed.
24th. Up, and to the office, where much business upon me by the coming of
people of all sorts about the dispatch of one business or other of the
fire-ships, or other ships to be set out now. This morning Greeting come,
and I with him at my flageolet. At noon dined at home with my wife alone,
and then in the afternoon all the day at my office. Troubled a little at
a letter from my father, which tells me of an idle companion, one Coleman,
who went down with him and my wife in the coach, and come up again with my
wife, a pensioner of the King's Guard, and one that my wife, indeed, made
the feast for on Saturday last, though he did not come; but if he knows
nothing of our money I will prevent any other inconvenience. In the
evening comes Mr. Povy about business; and he and I to walk in the garden
an hour or two, and to talk of State matters. He tells me his opinion
that it is out of possibility for us to escape being undone, there being
nothing in our power to do that is necessary for the saving us: a lazy
Prince, no Council, no money, no reputation at home or abroad. He says
that to this day the King do follow the women as much as ever he did; that
the Duke of York hath not got Mrs. Middleton, as I was told the other day:
but says that he wants not her, for he hath others, and hath always had,
and that he [Povy] hath known them brought through the Matted Gallery at
White Hall into his [the Duke's] closet; nay, he hath come out of his
wife's bed, and gone to others laid in bed for him: that Mr. Bruncker is
not the only pimp, but that the whole family is of the same strain, and
will do anything to please him: that, besides the death of the two Princes
lately, the family is in horrible disorder by being in debt by spending
above L60,000 per. annum, when he hath not L40,000: that the Duchesse is
not only the proudest woman in the world, but the most expensefull; and
that the Duke of York's marriage with her hath undone the kingdom, by
making the Chancellor so great above reach, who otherwise would have been
but an ordinary man, to have been dealt with by other people; and he would
have been careful of managing things well, for fear of being called to
account; whereas, now he is secure, and hath let things run to rack, as
they now appear. That at a certain time Mr. Povy did carry him an account
of the state of the Duke of York's estate, showing in faithfullness how he
spent more than his estate would bear, by above L20,000 per annum, and
asked my Lord's opinion of it; to which he answered that no man that loved
the King or kingdom durst own the writing of that paper; at which Povy was
startled, and reckoned himself undone for this good service, and found it
necessary then to show it to the Duke of York's Commissioners; who read,
examined, and approved of it, so as to cause it to be put into form, and
signed it, and gave it the Duke. Now the end of the Chancellor was, for
fear that his daughter's ill housewifery should be condemned. He [Povy]
tells me that the other day, upon this ill newes of the Dutch being upon
us, White Hall was shut up, and the Council called and sat close; and, by
the way, he do assure me, from the mouth of some Privy-councillors, that
at this day the Privy-council in general do know no more what the state of
the kingdom as to peace and war is, than he or I; nor knows who manages
it, nor upon whom it depends; and there my Lord Chancellor did make a
speech to them, saying that they knew well that he was no friend to the
war from the beginning, and therefore had concerned himself little in, nor
could say much to it; and a great deal of that kind, to discharge himself
of the fault of the war. Upon which my Lord Anglesey rose up and told his
Majesty that he thought their coming now together was not to enquire who
was, or was not, the cause of the war, but to enquire what was, or could
be, done in the business of making a peace, and in whose hands that was,
and where it was stopped or forwarded; and went on very highly to have all
made open to them: and, by the way, I remember that Captain Cocke did the
other day tell me that this Lord Anglesey hath said, within few days, that
he would willingly give L10,000 of his estate that he was well secured of
the rest, such apprehensions he hath of the sequel of things, as giving
all over for lost. He tells me, speaking of the horrid effeminacy of the
King, that the King hath taken ten times more care and pains in making
friends between my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Stewart, when they have
fallen out, than ever he did to save his kingdom; nay, that upon any
falling out between my Lady Castlemayne's nurse and her woman, my Lady
hath often said she would make the King to make them friends, and they
would be friends and be quiet; which the King hath been fain to do: that
the King is, at this day, every night in Hyde Park with the Duchesse of
Monmouth, or with my Lady Castlemaine: that he [Povy] is concerned of late
by my Lord Arlington in the looking after some buildings that he is about
in Norfolke, where my Lord is laying out a great deal of money; and that
he, Mr. Povy, considering the unsafeness of laying out money at such a
time as this, and, besides, the enviousness of the particular county, as
well as all the kingdom, to find him building and employing workmen, while
all the ordinary people of the country are carried down to the seasides
for securing the land, he thought it becoming him to go to my Lord
Arlington (Sir Thomas Clifford by), and give it as his advice to hold his
hands a little; but my Lord would not, but would have him go on, and so
Sir Thomas Clifford advised also, which one would think, if he were a
statesman worth a fart should be a sign of his foreseeing that all shall
do well. But I do forbear concluding any such thing from them. He tells
me that there is not so great confidence between any two men of power in
the nation at this day, that he knows of, as between my Lord Arlington and
Sir Thomas Clifford; and that it arises by accident only, there being no
relation nor acquaintance between them, but only Sir Thomas Clifford's
coming to him, and applying himself to him for favours, when he come first
up to town to be a Parliament-man. He tells me that he do not think there
is anything in the world for us possibly to be saved by but the King of
France's generousnesse to stand by us against the Dutch, and getting us a
tolerable peace, it may be, upon our giving him Tangier and the islands he
hath taken, and other things he shall please to ask. He confirms me in
the several grounds I have conceived of fearing that we shall shortly fall
into mutinys and outrages among ourselves, and that therefore he, as a
Treasurer, and therefore much more myself, I say, as being not only a
Treasurer but an officer of the Navy, on whom, for all the world knows,
the faults of all our evils are to be laid, do fear to be seized on by
some rude hands as having money to answer for, which will make me the more
desirous to get off of this Treasurership as soon as I can, as I had
before in my mind resolved. Having done all this discourse, and concluded
the kingdom in a desperate condition, we parted; and I to my wife, with
whom was Mercer and Betty Michell, poor woman, come with her husband to
see us after the death of her little girle. We sat in the garden together
a while, it being night, and then Mercer and I a song or two, and then in
(the Michell's home), my wife, Mercer, and I to supper, and then parted
and to bed.