fellow that may be done with
what he will, and, himself certainly pretending to be Generall of the
King's armies, when Monk dyeth, desires to have as few great or wise men
in employment as he can now, but such as he can put in and keep under,
which he do this coxcomb Fitzgerald. It seems, of all mankind there
is no man so led by another as the Duke is by Lord Muskerry and
this FitzHarding, insomuch, as when the King would have him to be
Privy-Purse, the Duke wept, and said, "But, Sir, I must have your
promise, if you will have my dear Charles from me, that if ever you have
occasion for an army again, I may have him with me; believing him to be
the best commander of an army in the world." But Mr. Cholmly thinks, as
all other men I meet with do, that he is a very ordinary fellow. It is
strange how the Duke also do love naturally, and affect the Irish above
the English. He, of the company he carried with him to sea, took above
two-thirds Irish and French. He tells me the King do hate my Lord
Chancellor; and that they, that is the King and my Lord FitzHarding, do
laugh at him for a dull fellow; and in all this business of the Dutch
war do nothing by his advice, hardly consulting him. Only he is a good
minister in other respects, and the King cannot be without him; but,
above all, being the Duke's father-in-law, he is kept in; otherwise
FitzHarding were able to fling down two of him. This, all the wise and
grave lords see, and cannot help it; but yield to it. But he bemoans
what the end of it may be, the King being ruled by these men, as he hath
been all along since his coming; to the razing all the strong-holds in
Scotland, and giving liberty to the Irish in Ireland, whom Cromwell had
settled all in one corner; who are now able, and it is feared everyday
a massacre again among them. He being gone I abroad to the carrier's, to
see some things sent away to my father against Christmas, and thence to
Moorfields, and there up and down to several houses to drink to look for
a place 'pour rencontrer la femme de je sais quoi' against next Monday,
but could meet none. So to the Coffeehouse, where great talke of the
Comet seen in several places; and among our men at sea, and by my Lord
Sandwich, to whom I intend to write about it to-night. Thence home to
dinner, and then to the office, where all the afternoon, and in the
evening home to supper, and then to the office late, and so to bed. This
night I begun to burn wax candles in my cl