our's, people that appear (for we are not indeed so) so
faulty as we, would have their throats cut. In the evening comes Mr.
Pelling, and several others, to the office, and tell me that never were
people so dejected as they are in the City all over at this day; and do
talk most loudly, even treason; as, that we are bought and sold--that
we are betrayed by the Papists, and others, about the King; cry out that
the office of the Ordnance hath been so backward as no powder to have
been at Chatham nor Upnor Castle till such a time, and the carriages all
broken; that Legg is a Papist; that Upnor, the old good castle built by
Queen Elizabeth, should be lately slighted; that the ships at Chatham
should not be carried up higher. They look upon us as lost, and remove
their families and rich goods in the City; and do think verily that the
French, being come down with his army to Dunkirke, it is to invade us,
and that we shall be invaded. Mr. Clerke, the solicitor, comes to me
about business, and tells me that he hears that the King hath chosen
Mr. Pierpont and Vaughan of the West, Privy-councillors; that my Lord
Chancellor was affronted in the Hall this day, by people telling him
of his Dunkirke house; and that there are regiments ordered to be got
together, whereof to be commanders my Lord Fairfax, Ingoldsby, Bethell,
Norton, and Birch, and other Presbyterians; and that Dr. Bates will have
liberty to preach. Now, whether this be true or not, I know not; but do
think that nothing but this will unite us together. Late at night comes
Mr. Hudson, the cooper, my neighbour, and tells me that he come from
Chatham this evening at five o'clock, and saw this afternoon "The Royal
James," "Oake," and "London," burnt by the enemy with their fire-ships:
that two or three men-of-war come up with them, and made no more of
Upnor Castle's shooting, than of a fly; that those ships lay below Upnor
Castle, but therein, I conceive, he is in an error; that the Dutch are
fitting out "The Royall Charles;" that we shot so far as from the Yard
thither, so that the shot did no good, for the bullets grazed on the
water; that Upnor played hard with their guns at first, but slowly
afterwards, either from the men being beat off, or their powder spent.
But we hear that the fleete in the Hope is not come up any higher the
last flood; and Sir W. Batten tells me that ships are provided to sink
in the River, about Woolwich, that will prevent their coming up higher
if