om the Commons Journals and the Parliamentary History for the week
between May 1 and May 8, with references to Whitlocke and Phillips.]

And so all was settled between Charles and his Three Kingdoms. By
this time, indeed, not only in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, but all
over the main island from Land's End to Caithness and all over the
lesser from Mizen Head to Malin Head, there was simply a universal
impatience till it should be known that Montague's fleet had shot
from the Downs towards the Dutch coasts, to bring his Majesty and his
Court, on the decks of his own ships, within hail of the cheering
from Dover cliffs. The delay was chiefly because of the necessity of
certain upholstering and tailoring preparations on both sides. At
home there had to be due preparations of a household for his Majesty,
and of households for his two brothers, when they should arrive.
There had to be got ready not only a new crown and sceptre, and new
robes and ermines, but also the velvet bed, with the gold embroidery,
the lining of satin or cloth of silver, the satin quilts, the fustian
quilts to lie under the satin quilts, the down bolster, the fustian
blankets, the Spanish blankets, the Holland sheets, with other
accoutrements for his Majesty's own bedroom, besides similar
furnishing for the bedrooms of the Dukes of York and Gloucester, a
new coach for his Majesty, liveries for his coachmen, footmen, and
other servants, and innumerable etceteras. Then, on the other side of
the water, where his Majesty had meanwhile received with
extraordinary satisfaction, through Sir John Greenville, the L50,000
voted him by the Commons, L10,000 of it in gold from England, and the
rest in bank bills payable at sight in Amsterdam, and where the Duke
of York had been promised another L10,000 and the Duke of Gloucester
L5000, much of the money had to be converted into the apparel and
other equipments required for the suitable appearance of the three
royal personages and their retinues when they should present
themselves in England. A great deal might be done at Breda, where
already there was swarming round his Majesty a miscellany of private
visitors, English, Scottish, and Irish, all anxious to be useful, and
many of them with presents of money. But the final arrangements were
to be at the Hague, the capital of the United Provinces, amid
whatever stately ceremonial of congratulation and farewell the Dutch
Government could now offer in atonement for pre