in Indian inke the great
picture of the King and Queen sitting,--[Charles I. and Henrietta
Maria.]--by Van Dyke; and did it very finely. Thence to Westminster Hall
to hear our cause, but [it] did not come before them to-day, so went
down and walked below in the Hall, and there met with Ned Pickering,
who tells me the ill newes of his nephew Gilbert, who is turned a very
rogue, and then I took a turn with Mr. Evelyn, with whom I walked two
hours, till almost one of the clock: talking of the badness of the
Government, where nothing but wickedness, and wicked men and women
command the King: that it is not in his nature to gainsay any thing that
relates to his pleasures; that much of it arises from the sickliness of
our Ministers of State, who cannot be about him as the idle companions
are, and therefore he gives way to the young rogues; and then, from the
negligence of the Clergy, that a Bishop shall never be seen about him,
as the King of France hath always: that the King would fain have some
of the same gang to be Lord Treasurer, which would be yet worse, for now
some delays are put to the getting gifts of the King, as that whore my
Lady Byron,

[Eleanor, daughter of Robert Needham, Viscount Kilmurrey, and widow
of Peter Warburton, became in 1644 the second wife of John Byron,
first Lord Byron. Died 1663.--B.]

who had been, as he called it, the King's seventeenth whore abroad, did
not leave him till she had got him to give her an order for L4000 worth
of plate to be made for her; but by delays, thanks be to God! she died
before she had it. He tells me mighty stories of the King of France, how
great a prince he is. He hath made a code to shorten the law; he
hath put out all the ancient commanders of castles that were become
hereditary; he hath made all the fryers subject to the bishops,
which before were only subject to Rome, and so were hardly the King's
subjects, and that none shall become 'religieux' but at such an age,
which he thinks will in a few, years ruin the Pope, and bring France
into a patriarchate. He confirmed to me the business of the want of
paper at the Council-table the other day, which I have observed; Wooly
being to have found it, and did, being called, tell the King to his face
the reason of it; and Mr. Evelyn tells me several of the menial servants
of the Court lacking bread, that have not received a farthing wages
since the King's coming in. He tells me the King of France hath his