here
met with Sir W. Coventry (who was there out of great generosity, and no
person of quality there but he) and went with him into his coach, and
being in it with him there happened this extraordinary case, one of
the most romantique that ever I heard of in my life, and could not have
believed, but that I did see it; which was this:--About a dozen able,
lusty, proper men come to the coach-side with tears in their eyes, and
one of them that spoke for the rest begun and says to Sir W. Coventry,
"We are here a dozen of us that have long known and loved, and served
our dead commander, Sir Christopher Mings, and have now done the last
office of laying him in the ground. We would be glad we had any other to
offer after him, and in revenge of him. All we have is our lives; if
you will please to get His Royal Highness to give us a fireship among
us all, here is a dozen of us, out of all which choose you one to be
commander, and the rest of us, whoever he is, will serve him; and, if
possible, do that that shall show our memory of our dead commander, and
our revenge." Sir W. Coventry was herewith much moved (as well as I, who
could hardly abstain from weeping), and took their names, and so parted;
telling me that he would move His Royal Highness as in a thing very
extraordinary, which was done. Thereon see the next day in this book. So
we parted. The truth is, Sir Christopher Mings was a very stout man, and
a man of great parts, and most excellent tongue among ordinary men; and
as Sir W. Coventry says, could have been the most useful man at such a
pinch of time as this. He was come into great renowne here at home, and
more abroad in the West Indys. He had brought his family into a way of
being great; but dying at this time, his memory and name (his father
being always and at this day a shoemaker, and his mother a Hoyman's
daughter; of which he was used frequently to boast) will be quite forgot
in a few months as if he had never been, nor any of his name be the
better by it; he having not had time to will any estate, but is dead
poor rather than rich. So we left the church and crowd, and I home
(being set down on Tower Hill), and there did a little business and then
in the evening went down by water to Deptford, it being very late, and
there I staid out as much time as I could, and then took boat again
homeward, but the officers being gone in, returned and walked to Mrs.
Bagwell's house, and there (it being by this time pretty dark