lose; 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