4

December 1st. Up betimes and to White Hall to a Committee of Tangier,
and so straight home and hard to my business at my office till noon,
then to dinner, and so to my office, and by and by we sat all the
afternoon, then to my office again till past one in the morning, and so
home to supper and to bed.

2nd. Lay long in bed. Then up and to the office, where busy all the
morning. At home dined. After dinner with my wife and Mercer to the
Duke's House, and there saw "The Rivalls," which I had seen before; but
the play not good, nor anything but the good actings of Betterton and
his wife and Harris. Thence homeward, and the coach broke with us in
Lincoln's Inn Fields, and so walked to Fleete Streete, and there took
coach and home, and to my office, whither by and by comes Captain Cocke,
and then Sir W. Batten, and we all to Sir J. Minnes, and I did give
them a barrel of oysters I had given to me, and so there sat and talked,
where good discourse of the late troubles, they knowing things, all
of them, very well; and Cocke, from the King's own mouth, being then
entrusted himself much, do know particularly that the King's credulity
to Cromwell's promises, private to him, against the advice of his
friends and the certain discovery of the practices and discourses of
Cromwell in council (by Major Huntington)

[According to Clarendon the officer here alluded to was a major in
Cromwell's own regiment of horse, and employed by him to treat with
Charles I. whilst at Hampton Court; but being convinced of the
insincerity of the proceeding, communicated his suspicions to that
monarch, and immediately gave up his commission. We hear no more of
Huntington till the Restoration, when his name occurs with those of
many other officers, who tendered their services to the king. His
reasons for laying down his commission are printed in Thurloe's
"State Papers" and Maseres's "Tracts."--B.]

did take away his life and nothing else. Then to some loose atheisticall
discourse of Cocke's, when he was almost drunk, and then about 11
o'clock broke up, and I to my office, to fit up an account for Povy,
wherein I hope to get something. At it till almost two o'clock, then to
supper and to bed.

3rd. Up, and at the office all the morning, and at noon to Mr. Cutler's,
and there dined with Sir W. Rider and him, and thence Sir W. Rider and I
by coach to White Hall to a Committee of the Fishery; there only