whole do find that it is a troublesome thing for a man of any condition at
Court to carry himself even, and without contracting enemys or envyers;
and that much discretion and dissimulation is necessary to do it. My
father staid a good while at the window and then sat down by himself while
my Lord and I were thus an hour together or two after dinner discoursing,
and by and by he took his leave, and told me he would stay below for me.
Anon I took leave, and coming down found my father unexpectedly in great
pain and desiring for God's sake to get him a bed to lie upon, which I
did, and W. Howe and I staid by him, in so great pain as I never saw, poor
wretch, and with that patience, crying only: Terrible, terrible pain, God
help me, God help me, with the mournful voice, that made my heart ake. He
desired to rest a little alone to see whether it would abate, and W. Howe
and I went down and walked in the gardens, which are very fine, and a
pretty fountayne, with which I was finely wetted, and up to a banquetting
house, with a very fine prospect, and so back to my father, who I found in
such pain that I could not bear the sight of it without weeping, never
thinking that I should be able to get him from thence, but at last,
finding it like to continue, I got him to go to the coach, with great
pain, and driving hard, he all the while in a most unsufferable torment
(meeting in the way with Captain Ferrers going to my Lord, to tell him
that my Lady Jemimah is come to town, and that Will Stankes is come with
my father's horses), not staying the coach to speak with any body, but
once, in St. Paul's Churchyard, we were forced to stay, the jogging and
pain making my father vomit, which it never had done before. At last we
got home, and all helping him we got him to bed presently, and after half
an hour's lying in his naked bed (it being a rupture [with] which he is
troubled, and has been this 20 years, but never in half the pain and with
so great swelling as now, and how this came but by drinking of cold small
beer and sitting long upon a low stool and then standing long after it he
cannot tell) . . . . After which he was at good ease, and so continued,