and sister), was a true friend to his poor kinsman, and he at once held
out a helping hand to the imprudent couple, allowing them to live in his
house. John Pepys does not appear to have been in sufficiently good
circumstances to pay for the education of his son, and it seems probable
that Samuel went to the university under his influential cousin's
patronage. At all events he owed his success in life primarily to
Montage, to whom he appears to have acted as a sort of agent.

On March 26th, 1658, he underwent a successful operation for the stone,
and we find him celebrating each anniversary of this important event of
his life with thanksgiving. He went through life with little trouble on
this score, but when he died at the age of seventy a nest of seven stones
was found in his left kidney.

["June 10th, 1669. I went this evening to London, to carry Mr.
Pepys to my brother Richard, now exceedingly afflicted with the
stone, who had been successfully cut, and carried the stone, as big
as a tennis ball, to show him and encourage his resolution to go
thro' the operation."--Evelyn's Diary.]

In June, 1659, Pepys accompanied Sir Edward Montage in the "Naseby," when
the Admiral of the Baltic Fleet and Algernon Sidney went to the Sound as
joint commissioners. It was then that Montage corresponded with Charles
II., but he had to be very secret in his movements on account of the
suspicions of Sidney. Pepys knew nothing of what was going on, as he
confesses in the Diary:

"I do from this raise an opinion of him, to be one of the most
secret men in the world, which I was not so convinced of before."