derstands me to be her
friend, and I am apt to believe by what my wife hath of late told me is a
cunning girle, if not a slut. Thence, parting kindly with my wife, I away
by coach to my cozen Roger, according as by mistake (which the trouble of
my mind for some days has occasioned, in this and another case a day or
two before) is set down in yesterday's notes, and so back again, and with
Mr. Gibson late at my chamber making an end of my draught of a letter for
the Duke of York, in answer to the answers of this Office, which I have
now done to my mind, so as, if the Duke likes it, will, I think, put an
end to a great deal of the faults of this Office, as well as my trouble
for them. So to bed, and did lie now a little better than formerly, but
with little, and yet with some trouble.

13th. Up, and with Sir W. Pen by coach to White Hall, where to the Duke
of York, and there did our usual business; and thence I to the
Commissioners of the Treasury, where I staid, and heard an excellent case
argued between my Lord Gerard and the Town of Newcastle, about a piece of
ground which that Lord hath got a grant of, under the Exchequer Seal,
which they were endeavouring to get of the King under the Great Seal. I
liked mightily the Counsel for the town, Shaftow, their Recorder, and Mr.
Offly. But I was troubled, and so were the Lords, to hear my Lord fly out
against their great pretence of merit from the King, for their sufferings
and loyalty; telling them that they might thank him for that repute which
they have for their loyalty, for that it was he that forced them to be so,
against their wills, when he was there: and, moreover, did offer a paper
to the Lords to read from the Town, sent in 1648; but the Lords would not
read it; but I believe it was something about bringing the King to trial,
or some such thing, in that year. Thence I to the Three Tuns Tavern, by
Charing Cross, and there dined with W. Pen, Sir J. Minnes, and
Commissioner Middleton; and as merry as my mind could be, that hath so
much trouble upon it at home. And thence to White Hall, and there staid
in Mr. Wren's chamber with him, reading over my draught of a letter, which
Mr. Gibson then attended me with; and there he did like all, but doubted
whether it would be necessary for the Duke to write in so sharp a style to
the Office, as I had drawn it in; which I yield to him, to consider the
present posture of the times and the Duke of York and whether it were not