we went to the 3 Tun tavern and drank half a pint of wine, and not
liking the wine we went to an alehouse, where we met with company of
this third man's acquaintance, and there we drank a little. Hence I went
alone to Guildhall to see whether Monk was come again or no, and met
with him coming out of the chamber where he had been with the Mayor and
Aldermen, but such a shout I never heard in all my life, crying out,
"God bless your Excellence." Here I met with Mr. Lock, and took him to
an alehouse, and left him there to fetch Chetwind; when we were come
together, Lock told us the substance of the letter that went from Monk
to the Parliament; wherein, after complaints that he and his officers
were put upon such offices against the City as they could not do with
any content or honour, that there are many members now in the House that
were of the late tyrannical Committee of Safety. That Lambert and Vane
are now in town, contrary to the vote of Parliament. That there were
many in the House that do press for new oaths to be put upon men;
whereas we have more cause to be sorry for the many oaths that we have
already taken and broken. That the late petition of the fanatique people
presented by Barebone, for the imposing of an oath upon all sorts of
people, was received by the House with thanks. That therefore he [Monk]
do desire that all writs for filling up of the House be issued by Friday
next, and that in the mean time, he would retire into the City and
only leave them guards for the security of the House and Council. The
occasion of this was the order that he had last night to go into the
City and disarm them, and take away their charter; whereby he and his
officers say that the House had a mind to put them upon things that
should make them odious; and so it would be in their power to do what
they would with them. He told us that they [the Parliament] had sent
Scott and Robinson to him [Monk] this afternoon, but he would not hear
them. And that the Mayor and Aldermen had offered him their own houses
for himself and his officers; and that his soldiers would lack for
nothing. And indeed I saw many people give the soldiers drink and money,
and all along in the streets cried, "God bless them!" and extraordinary
good words. Hence we went to a merchant's house hard by, where Lock
wrote a note and left, where I saw Sir Nich. Crisp, and so we went to
the Star Tavern (Monk being then at Benson's), where we dined and I
wrote a letter