man by his care in getting him his things
again, he having some hopes of being the better by him in his estate
at his death. Home to dinner, and after dinner my wife and I by water,
which we have not done together many a day, that is not since last
summer, but the weather is now very warm, and left her at Axe Yard, and
I to White Hall, and meeting Mr. Pierce walked with him an hour in the
Matted Gallery; among other things he tells me that my Lady Castlemaine
is not at all set by by the King, but that he do doat upon Mrs. Stewart
only; and that to the leaving of all business in the world, and to the
open slighting of the Queene; that he values not who sees him or stands
by him while he dallies with her openly; and then privately in her
chamber below, where the very sentrys observe his going in and out; and
that so commonly, that the Duke or any of the nobles, when they would
ask where the King is, they will ordinarily say, "Is the King above, or
below?" meaning with Mrs. Stewart: that the King do not openly disown
my Lady Castlemaine, but that she comes to Court; but that my Lord
FitzHarding and the Hambletons,

[The three brothers, George Hamilton, James Hamilton, and the Count
Antoine Hamilton, author of the "Memoires de Grammont."]

and sometimes my Lord Sandwich, they say, have their snaps at her. But
he says my Lord Sandwich will lead her from her lodgings in the darkest
and obscurest manner, and leave her at the entrance into the Queene's
lodgings, that he might be the least observed; that the Duke of Monmouth
the King do still doat on beyond measure, insomuch that the King only,
the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert, and the Duke of Monmouth, do now
wear deep mourning, that is, long cloaks, for the Duchesse of Savoy; so
that he mourns as a Prince of the Blood, while the Duke of York do no
more, and all the nobles of the land not so much; which gives great
offence, and he says the Duke of York do consider. But that the Duke
of York do give himself up to business, and is like to prove a noble
Prince; and so indeed I do from my heart think he will. He says that
it is believed, as well as hoped, that care is taken to lay up a hidden
treasure of money by the King against a bad day, pray God it be so! but
I should be more glad that the King himself would look after business,
which it seems he do not in the least. By and by came by Mr. Coventry,
and so we broke off; and he and I took a turn or two and so parted,