otherwise than by the fleete's being abroad again, and so finding
other worke for men's minds and discourse. Then to discourse of himself,
saying, that he heard that he was under the lash of people's discourse
about the Prince's not having notice of the Dutch being out, and for him
to comeback again, nor the Duke of Albemarle notice that the Prince was
sent for back again: to which he told me very particularly how careful
he was the very same night that it was resolved to send for the Prince
back, to cause orders to be writ, and waked the Duke, who was then in
bed, to sign them; and that they went by expresse that very night, being
the Wednesday night before the fight, which begun on the Friday; and
that for sending them by the post expresse, and not by gentlemen on
purpose, he made a sport of it, and said, I knew of none to send it
with, but would at least have lost more time in fitting themselves out,
than any diligence of theirs beyond that of the ordinary post would have
recovered. I told him that this was not so much the towne talke as the
reason of dividing the fleete. To this he told me he ought not to say
much; but did assure me in general that the proposition did first come
from the fleete, and the resolution not being prosecuted with orders
so soon as the Generall thought fit, the Generall did send Sir Edward
Spragge up on purpose for them; and that there was nothing in the whole
business which was not done with the full consent and advice of the Duke
of Albemarle.

But he did adde (as the Catholiques call 'le secret de la Masse'), that
Sir Edward Spragge--who had even in Sir Christopher Mings's time put in
to be the great favourite of the Prince, but much more now had a mind to
be the great man with him, and to that end had a mind to have the Prince
at a distance from the Duke of Albemarle, that they might be doing
something alone--did, as he believed, put on this business of dividing
the fleete, and that thence it came.

[This division of the fleet was the original cause of the disaster,
and at a later period the enemies of Clarendon charged him with
having advised this action, but Coventry's communication to Pepys in
the text completely exonerates Clarendon.]

He tells me as to the business of intelligence, the want whereof the
world did complain much of, that for that it was not his business,
and as he was therefore to have no share in the blame, so he would
not meddle to lay it any w