me he [the] Chancellors did say the other day at his
table, "Treachery!" says he; "I could wish we could prove there
was anything of that in it; for that would imply some wit and
thoughtfulness; but we are ruined merely by folly and neglect." And
so Sir H. Cholmly tells me they did all argue for peace, and so he
do believe that the King hath agreed to the three points Mr. Coventry
brought over, which I have mentioned before, and is gone with them back.
He tells me further that the Duke of Buckingham was before the Council
the other day, and there did carry it very submissively and pleasingly
to the King; but to my Lord Arlington, who do prosecute the business,
he was most bitter and sharp, and very slighting. As to the letter about
his employing a man to cast the King's nativity, says he to the King,
"Sir," says he, "this is none of my hand, and I refer it to your Majesty
whether you do not know this hand." The King answered, that it was
indeed none of his, and that he knew whose it was, but could not recall
it presently. "Why," says he, "it is my sister of Richmond's, some
frolick or other of hers of some certain person; and there is nothing of
the King's name in it, but it is only said to be his by supposition, as
is said." The King, it seems, seemed not very much displeased with
what the Duke had said; but, however, he is still in the Tower, and no
discourse of his being out in haste, though my Lady Castlemayne hath
so far solicited for him that the King and she are quite fallen out: he
comes not to her, nor hath for some three or four days; and parted with
very foul words, the King calling her a whore, and a jade that meddled
with things she had nothing to do with at all: and she calling him fool;
and told him if he was not a fool, he would not suffer his businesses
to be carried on by fellows that did not understand them, and cause
his best subjects, and those best able to serve him, to be imprisoned;
meaning the Duke of Buckingham. And it seems she was not only for his
liberty, but to be restored to all his places; which, it is thought, he
will never be. While we were at the Excise office talking with Mr. Ball,
it was computed that the Parliament had given the King for this war
only, besides all prizes, and besides the L200,000 which he was to spend
of his own revenue, to guard the sea above L5,000,000 and odd L100,000;
which is a most prodigious sum. Sir H. Cholmly, as a true English
gentleman, do decry the King's