ion; who answered, that he was disposing
of his employments, and when that was done, he might be led to discharge
him: and this is what he expects, and what he seems to desire. But by
this discourse he was pleased to take occasion to shew me and read to
me his account, which he hath kept by him under his own hand, of all his
discourse, and the King's answers to him, upon the great business of
my Lord Clarendon, and how he had first moved the Duke of York with it
twice, at good distance, one after another, but without success; shewing
me thereby the simplicity and reasons of his so doing, and the manner of
it; and the King's accepting it, telling him that he was not satisfied
in his management, and did discover some dissatisfaction against him for
his opposing the laying aside of my Lord Treasurer, at Oxford, which was
a secret the King had not discovered. And really I was mighty proud to
be privy to this great transaction, it giving me great conviction of the
noble nature and ends of Sir W. Coventry in it, and considerations in
general of the consequences of great men's actions, and the uncertainty
of their estates, and other very serious considerations. From this to
other discourse, and so to the Office, where we sat all the morning, and
after dinner by coach to my cozen Turner's, thinking to have taken the
young ladies to a play; but The. was let blood to-day; and so my wife
and I towards the King's playhouse, and by the way found Betty [Turner],
and Bab., and Betty Pepys staying for us; and so took them all to see
"Claricilla," which do not please me almost at all, though there are
some good things in it. And so to my cozen Turner's again, and there
find my Lady Mordaunt, and her sister Johnson; and by and by comes in a
gentleman, Mr. Overbury, a pleasant man, who plays most excellently on
the flagelette, a little one, that sounded as low as one of mine, and
mighty pretty. Hence by and by away, and with my wife, and Bab. and
Betty Pepys, and W. Hewer, whom I carried all this day with me, to my
cozen Stradwick's, where I have not been ever since my brother Tom died,
there being some difference between my father and them, upon the account
of my cozen Scott; and I was glad of this opportunity of seeing them,
they being good and substantial people, and kind, and here met my cozen
Roger and his wife, and my cozen Turner, and here, which I never did
before, I drank a glass, of a pint, I believe, at one draught, of the
juice