to His Majesty.

I need not say that half a dozen times since I had left him, my
resolution had faltered; though, it had never broken down. I heard mass
in Weld Street; and there again I wondered whether I had decided
rightly, and again as I burned all my papers after dinner--(for when a
man begins afresh he had best make a clean sweep of the past). I went to
take the air a little, before sunset, in St. James' Park, and from a
good distance saw His Majesty going to feed the ducks, with a dozen
spaniels, I daresay going after him, and a couple of gentlemen with him,
but no guards at all. The King walked much more slowly that day than
was his wont--I suppose because of the sore on his heel. But I did not
go near enough for him to see me; for I would trouble him now no further
than I need. All this time--or at least now and again--I wondered a
little as to whether I was right to go. I will not deny that the
prospect of remaining had a little allurement in it; but it was truly
not more than a little; and as evening fell and my heart went inwards
again, as hearts do when the curtains are drawn, I wondered that it had
been any allurement at all: for my life lay buried in the churchyard of
Hormead Parva, and I had best bury the rest of me in the place where at
least I had a few friends left. After supper, about ten o'clock, I put
on my cloak and went across to the Duchess of Portsmouth's lodgings,
where the _levee_ was held usually on such evenings. My man James went
with me to light me there.

I do not think I have seen a more splendid sight, very often, than that
great gallery, when I came into it that night, passing on my way through
the closet where I had once talked with Her Grace. It was all alight
from end to end with candles in cressets, and on the great round table
at the further end where the company was playing basset, stood tall
candlesticks amidst all the gold. I had not seen this great gallery
before; and it was beyond everything, and far beyond Her Majesty's own
great chamber. If I had thought the closet fine, this was a thousand
times more. There were great French tapestries on the walls, and between
them paintings that had been once Her Majesty's, and those not the worst
of them. The quantity of silver in the room astonished me: there were
whole tables of it, and braziers and sconces and cressets beyond
reckoning; and there were at least five or six chiming clocks that the
King had given to Her Grace; and ta