ber
12th, 1679.]

and borrowed L10 of Mr. Andrewes for my own use, and so went to my
office, where there was nothing to do. Then I walked a great while in
Westminster Hall, where I heard that Lambert was coming up to London;
that my Lord Fairfax

[Thomas, Lord Fairfax, Generalissimo of the Parliament forces.
After the Restoration, he retired to his country seat, where he
lived in private till his death, 1671. In a volume (autograph) of
Lord Fairfax's Poems, preserved in the British Museum, 11744, f. 42,
the following lines occur upon the 30th of January, on which day the
King was beheaded. It is believed that they have never been
printed.

"O let that day from time be bloted quitt,
And beleef of 't in next age be waved,
In depest silence that act concealed might,
That so the creadet of our nation might be saved;
But if the powre devine hath ordered this,
His will's the law, and our must aquiess."

These wretched verses have obviously no merit; but they are curious
as showing that Fairfax, who had refused to act as one of Charles
I's judges; continued long afterwards to entertain a proper horror
for that unfortunate monarch's fate. It has recently been pointed
out to me, that the lines were not originally composed by Fairfax,
being only a poor translation of the spirited lines of Statius
(Sylvarum lib. v. cap. ii. l. 88)

"Excidat illa dies aevo, ne postera credant
Secula, nos certe taceamus; et obruta multa
Nocte tegi propria patiamur crimina gentis."

These verses were first applied by the President de Thou to the
massacre of St. Bartholomew, 1572; and in our day, by Mr. Pitt, in
his memorable speech in the House of Commons, January, 1793, after
the murder of Louis XVI.--B.]

was in the head of the Irish brigade, but it was not certain what he
would declare for. The House was to-day upon finishing the act for the
Council of State, which they did; and for the indemnity to the soldiers;
and were to sit again thereupon in the afternoon. Great talk that many
places have declared for a free Parliament; and it is believed that they
will be forced to fill up the House with the old members. From the Hall
I called at home, and so went to Mr. Crew's (my wife she was to go to
her father's),