when he hath done no more than send
in word to the Grandee that one was there from the Embassador; and he
knowing what was his errand, that hath been enough, and he never spoken
with him: nay, several Grandees having been to marry a daughter, have
wrote letters to my Lord to give him notice, and out of the greatness of
his wisdom to desire his advice, though people he never saw; and then my
Lord he answers by commending the greatness of his discretion in making
so good an alliance, &c., and so ends. He says that it is so far from
dishonour to a man to give private revenge for an affront, that the
contrary is a disgrace; they holding that he that receives an affront
is not fit to appear in the sight of the world till he hath revenged
himself; and therefore, that a gentleman there that receives an affront
oftentimes never appears again in the world till he hath, by some
private way or other, revenged himself: and that, on this account,
several have followed their enemies privately to the Indys, thence to
Italy, thence to France and back again, watching for an opportunity to
be revenged. He says my Lord was fain to keep a letter from the Duke of
York to the Queen of Spain a great while in his hands, before he could
think fit to deliver it, till he had learnt whether the Queen would
receive it, it being directed to his cozen. He says that many ladies in
Spain, after they are found to be with child, do never stir out of their
beds or chambers till they are brought to bed: so ceremonious they are
in that point also. He tells me of their wooing by serenades at the
window, and that their friends do always make the match; but yet that
they have opportunities to meet at masse at church, and there they make
love: that the Court there hath no dancing, nor visits at night to see
the King or Queen, but is always just like a cloyster, nobody stirring
in it: that my Lord Sandwich wears a beard now, turned up in the Spanish
manner. But that which pleases me most indeed is, that the peace which
he hath made with Spain is now printed here, and is acknowledged by all
the merchants to be the best peace that ever England had with them: and
it appears that the King thinks it so, for this is printed before the
ratification is gone over; whereas that with France and Holland was
not in a good while after, till copys come over of it in English out of
Holland and France, that it was a reproach not to have it printed here.
This I am mighty glad of;