all the day at my office. Troubled a little at
a letter from my father, which tells me of an idle companion, one Coleman,
who went down with him and my wife in the coach, and come up again with my
wife, a pensioner of the King's Guard, and one that my wife, indeed, made
the feast for on Saturday last, though he did not come; but if he knows
nothing of our money I will prevent any other inconvenience. In the
evening comes Mr. Povy about business; and he and I to walk in the garden
an hour or two, and to talk of State matters. He tells me his opinion
that it is out of possibility for us to escape being undone, there being
nothing in our power to do that is necessary for the saving us: a lazy
Prince, no Council, no money, no reputation at home or abroad. He says
that to this day the King do follow the women as much as ever he did; that
the Duke of York hath not got Mrs. Middleton, as I was told the other day:
but says that he wants not her, for he hath others, and hath always had,
and that he [Povy] hath known them brought through the Matted Gallery at
White Hall into his [the Duke's] closet; nay, he hath come out of his
wife's bed, and gone to others laid in bed for him: that Mr. Bruncker is
not the only pimp, but that the whole family is of the same strain, and
will do anything to please him: that, besides the death of the two Princes
lately, the family is in horrible disorder by being in debt by spending
above L60,000 per. annum, when he hath not L40,000: that the Duchesse is
not only the proudest woman in the world, but the most expensefull; and
that the Duke of York's marriage with her hath undone the kingdom, by
making the Chancellor so great above reach, who otherwise would have been
but an ordinary man, to have been dealt with by other people; and he would
have been careful of managing things well, for fear of being called to
account; whereas, now he is secure, and hath let things run to rack, as
they now appear. That at a certain time Mr. Povy did carry him an account
of the state of the Duke of York's estate, showing in faithfullness how he
spent more than his estate would bear, by above L20,000 per annum, and
asked my Lord's opinion of it; to which he answered that no man that loved
the King or kingdom durst own the writing of that paper; at which Povy was
startled, and reckoned himself undone for this good service, and found it
necessary then to show it to the Duke of York's Commissioners; who read,
examined,