and approved of it, so as to cause it to be put into form, and
signed it, and gave it the Duke. Now the end of the Chancellor was, for
fear that his daughter's ill housewifery should be condemned. He [Povy]
tells me that the other day, upon this ill newes of the Dutch being upon
us, White Hall was shut up, and the Council called and sat close; and, by
the way, he do assure me, from the mouth of some Privy-councillors, that
at this day the Privy-council in general do know no more what the state of
the kingdom as to peace and war is, than he or I; nor knows who manages
it, nor upon whom it depends; and there my Lord Chancellor did make a
speech to them, saying that they knew well that he was no friend to the
war from the beginning, and therefore had concerned himself little in, nor
could say much to it; and a great deal of that kind, to discharge himself
of the fault of the war. Upon which my Lord Anglesey rose up and told his
Majesty that he thought their coming now together was not to enquire who
was, or was not, the cause of the war, but to enquire what was, or could
be, done in the business of making a peace, and in whose hands that was,
and where it was stopped or forwarded; and went on very highly to have all
made open to them: and, by the way, I remember that Captain Cocke did the
other day tell me that this Lord Anglesey hath said, within few days, that
he would willingly give L10,000 of his estate that he was well secured of
the rest, such apprehensions he hath of the sequel of things, as giving
all over for lost. He tells me, speaking of the horrid effeminacy of the
King, that the King hath taken ten times more care and pains in making
friends between my Lady Castlemayne and Mrs. Stewart, when they have
fallen out, than ever he did to save his kingdom; nay, that upon any
falling out between my Lady Castlemayne's nurse and her woman, my Lady
hath often said she would make the King to make them friends, and they
would be friends and be quiet; which the King hath been fain to do: that
the King is, at this day, every night in Hyde Park with the Duchesse of
Monmouth, or with my Lady Castlemaine: that he [Povy] is concerned of late
by my Lord Arlington in the looking after some buildings that he is about
in Norfolke, where my Lord is laying out a great deal of money; and that
he, Mr. Povy, considering the unsafeness of laying out money at such a
time as this, and, besides, the enviousness of the particular county, a