at the King's Gate' in Holborne; and the King all dirty,
but no hurt. How it come to pass I know not, but only it was dark, and
the torches did not, they say, light the coach as they should do. I
thought this morning to have seen my Lord Sandwich before he went out of
town, but I come half an hour too late; which troubles me, I having
not seen him since my Lady Palls died. So W. Hewer and I to the
Harp-and-Ball, to drink my morning draught, having come out in haste;
and there met with King, the Parliament-man, with whom I had some
impertinent talk. And so to the Privy Seal Office, to examine what
records I could find there, for my help in the great business I am put
upon, of defending the present constitution of the Navy; but there could
not have liberty without order from him that is in present waiting, Mr.
Bickerstaffe, who is out of town. This I did after I had walked to the
New Exchange and there met Mr. Moore, who went with me thither, and I
find him the same discontented poor man as ever. He tells me that Mr.
Shepley is upon being turned away from my Lord's family, and another
sent down, which I am sorry for; but his age and good fellowship have
almost made him fit for nothing. Thence, at Unthanke's my wife met
me, and with our coach to my cozen Turner's and there dined, and after
dinner with my wife alone to the King's playhouse, and there saw "The
Mocke Astrologer," which I have often seen, and but an ordinary play;
and so to my cozen Turner's again, where we met Roger Pepys, his wife,
and two daughters, and there staid and talked a little, and then home,
and there my wife to read to me, my eyes being sensibly hurt by the too
great lights of the playhouse. So to supper and to bed.

9th. Up, and to the Tower; and there find Sir W. Coventry alone, writing
down his journal, which, he tells me, he now keeps of the material
things; upon which I told him, and he is the only man I ever told it to,
I think, that I kept it most strictly these eight or ten years; and I
am sorry almost that I told it him, it not being necessary, nor may be
convenient to have it known. Here he showed me the petition he had sent
to the King by my Lord Keeper, which was not to desire any admittance
to employment, but submitting himself therein humbly to his Majesty; but
prayed the removal of his displeasure, and that he might be set free. He
tells me that my Lord Keeper did acquaint the King with the substance of
it, not shewing him the petit