morning, when I went early to inquire, I heard that
again His Majesty had slept well, and that the physicians were well
satisfied; I saw no one but a man of Mr. Chiffinch's, who told me that;
and that Dr. Ken, my Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells, was with the King;
and I went away content: but when I went back again, for the third time
that day, just before supper-time, I saw from the faces in the
antechamber that all was not so well. Yet I could get nothing out of
anyone, and did not wish to press too hard lest I should be turned out
altogether. I saw my friend of yesterday, whose name I have never yet
learned, hurrying across the end of the chamber into another little room
where the physicians had their consultations--(it was, I think, my Lord
Ailesbury's dressing-room)--but I was not in time to catch him; so I
went away again in some little dismay, yet not greatly alarmed even now.
The Bishop, I thought, could at least do him no great harm.

On the Thursday morning, before I was dressed, my man brought me the
_London Gazette_ that had been printed about six o'clock the evening
before. The announcement as to the King's health ran as follows. (I cut
out the passage then and there and put it in my diary.)

* * * * *

"At the Council Chamber, Whitehall, the 4th of February, 1684 [1685 N.
S.], at five in the afternoon.

"The Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council have thought
fit, for preventing false reports, I make known that His Majesty, upon
Monday morning last, was seized with a violent fit that gave great
cause to fear the issue of it; but after some hours an amendment
appeared, which with the blessing of God being improved by the
application of proper and seasonable remedies, is now so advanced, that
the physicians have this day as well as yesterday given this account to
the Council, viz.--That they conceive His Majesty to be in a condition
of safety, and that he will in a few days be freed from his distemper.

"JOHN NICHOLAS."

Yes, thought I, that is all very well; but what of yesterday after five
o'clock, and what of this morning?

* * * * *

As I went to His Majesty's lodgings an hour afterwards I heard the bells
from the churches beginning to peal, to call the folks to give thanks;
yet the faces within the Palace were very different. When I went up into
the great antechamber, the ph