sness of the Court; the contempt the King brings
himself into thereby; his minding nothing, but doing all things just as
his people about him will have it; the Duke of York becoming a slave to
this whore Denham, and wholly minds her; that there really was amours
between the Duchesse and Sidney; a that there is reason to fear that, as
soon as the Parliament have raised this money, the King will see that
he hath got all that he can get, and then make up a peace. He tells me,
what I wonder at, but that I find it confirmed by Mr. Pierce, whom I met
by-and-by in the Hall, that Sir W. Coventry is of the caball with the
Duke of York, and Bruncker, with this Denham; which is a shame, and I
am sorry for it, and that Sir W. Coventry do make her visits; but yet I
hope it is not so. Pierce tells me, that as little agreement as there is
between the Prince--[Rupert]--and Duke of Albemarle, yet they are likely
to go to sea again; for the first will not be trusted alone, and nobody
will go with him but this Duke of Albemarle. He tells me much how all
the commanders of the fleete and officers that are sober men do cry
out upon their bad discipline, and the ruine that must follow it if it
continue. But that which I wonder most at, it seems their secretaries
have been the most exorbitant in their fees to all sorts of the people,
that it is not to be believed that they durst do it, so as it is
believed they have got L800 apiece by the very vacancies in the fleete.
He tells me that Lady Castlemayne is concluded to be with child again;
and that all the people about the King do make no scruple of saying
that the King do lie with Mrs. Stewart, who, he says, is a most
excellent-natured lady. This day the King begins to put on his vest, and
I did see several persons of the House of Lords and Commons too, great
courtiers, who are in it; being a long cassocke close to the body, of
black cloth, and pinked with white silke under it, and a coat over it,
and the legs ruffled with black riband like a pigeon's leg; and, upon
the whole, I wish the King may keep it, for it is a very fine and
handsome garment.

[Evelyn describes the new fashion as "a comely dress after ye
Persian mode" (see "Diary," October 18th, 1666). He adds that he
had described the "comelinesse and usefulnesse" of the Persian
clothing in his pamphlet entitled "Tyrannus, or the Mode." "I do
not impute to this discourse the change which soone happen'd, but