me that he himself, in his own particular, was sorry
for it; for, while he stood, there was he and my Lord
Arlington to stand between him and harm: whereas
now there is only my Lord Arlington, and he is now
down, so that all their fury is placed upon him but
that he did tell the King, when he first moved it,
that, if he thought the laying of him, W. Coventry,
aside, would at all facilitate the removing of the
Chancellor, he would most willingly submit to it,
whereupon the King did command him to try the Duke
of York about it, and persuade him to it, which he
did, by the King’s command, undertake, and compass,
and the Duke of York did own his consent to the King,
but afterwards was brought to be of another mind for
the Chancellor, and now is displeased with him, and
[so is] the Duchesse, so that she will not see him;
but he tells me the Duke of York seems pretty kind,
and hath said that he do believe that W. Coventry
did mean well, and do it only out of judgment.
He tells me that he never was an intriguer in his
life, nor will be, nor of any combination of persons
to set up this, or fling down that, nor hath, in his
own business, this Parliament, spoke to three members
to say any thing for him, but will stand upon his own
defence, and will stay by it, and thinks that he is
armed against all they can [say], but the old business
of selling places, and in that thinks they cannot
hurt him. However, I do find him mighty willing
to have his name used as little as he can, and he
was glad when I did deliver him up a letter of his
to me, which did give countenance to the discharging
of men by ticket at Chatham, which is now coming in
question; and wherein, I confess, I am sorry to find
him so tender of appearing, it being a thing not only
good and fit, all that was done in it, but promoted
and advised by him. But he thinks the House
is set upon wresting anything to his prejudice that
they can pick up. He tells me he did never,
as a great many have, call the Chancellor rogue and
knave, and I know not what; but all that he hath said,
and will stand by, is, that his counsels were not good,
nor the manner of his managing of things. I
suppose he means suffering the King to run in debt;
for by and by the King walking in the parke, with a
great crowd of his idle people about him, I took occasion
to say that it was a sorry thing to be a poor King,
and to have others to come to correct the faults of
his own servants, and that this was it that brought
us all into this condition. He answered that
he would never be a poor King, and then the other
would mend of itself. “No,” says
he, “I would eat bread and drink water first,
and this day discharge all the idle company about me,
and walk only with two footmen; and this I have told
the King, and this must do it at last.”
I asked him how long the King would suffer this.
He told me the King must suffer it yet longer, that
he would not advise the King to do otherwise; for
it would break out again worse, if he should break