in the Lobby staid till almost noon expecting to hear
Barker's business, but it was not called, so I come away. Here I met
with Sir G. Downing, who tells me of Sir W. Pen's offering to lend
L500; and I tell him of my L300, which he would have me to lend upon the
credit of the latter part of the Act; saying, that by that means my 10
per cent. will continue to me the longer. But I understand better, and
will do it upon the L380,000, which will come to be paid the sooner;
there being no delight in lending money now, to be paid by the King
two years hence. But here he and Sir William Doyly were attending the
Council as Commissioners for sick and wounded, and prisoners: and they
told me their business, which was to know how we shall do to release our
prisoners; for it seems the Dutch have got us to agree in the treaty, as
they fool us in anything, that the dyet of the prisoners on both sides
shall be paid for, before they be released; which they have done,
knowing ours to run high, they having more prisoners of ours than we
have of theirs; so that they are able and most ready to discharge the
debt of theirs, but we are neither able nor willing to do that for ours,
the debt of those in Zealand only, amounting to above L5000 for men
taken in the King's own ships, besides others taken in merchantmen,
which expect, as is usual, that the King should redeem them; but I think
he will not, by what Sir G. Downing says. This our prisoners complain
of there; and say in their letters, which Sir G. Downing shewed me, that
they have made a good feat that they should be taken in the service of
the King, and the King not pay for their victuals while prisoners for
him. But so far they are from doing thus with their men, as we do to
discourage ours, that I find in the letters of some of our prisoners
there, which he shewed me, that they have with money got our men, that
they took, to work and carry their ships home for them; and they have
been well rewarded, and released when they come into Holland: which is
done like a noble, brave, and wise people. Having staid out my time that
I thought fit for me to return home, I home and there took coach and
with my wife to Walthamstow; to Sir W. Pen's, by invitation, the first
time I have been there, and there find him and all their guests (of
our office only) at dinner, which was a very bad dinner, and everything
suitable, that I never knew people in my life that make their flutter,
that do things so me