be done in the Navy, and he never be consulted; and it seems, in the
naming of all these commanders for this fleete, he hath never been asked
one question. But we concluded it wholly inconsistent with his honour not
to go with this fleete, nor with the reputation which the world hath of
his interest at Court; and so he did give me commission to tell Mr.
Coventry that he is most willing to receive any commands from the Duke in
this fleete, were it less than it is, and that particularly in this
service. With this message I parted, and by coach to the office, where I
found Mr. Coventry, and told him this. Methinks, I confess, he did not
seem so pleased with it as I expected, or at least could have wished, and
asked me whether I had told my Lord that the Duke do not expect his going,
which I told him I had. But now whether he means really that the Duke, as
he told me the other day, do think the Fleete too small for him to take or
that he would not have him go, I swear I cannot tell. But methinks other
ways might have been used to put him by without going in this manner about
it, and so I hope it is out of kindness indeed. Dined at home, and so to
the office, where a great while alone in my office, nobody near, with
Bagwell's wife of Deptford, but the woman seems so modest that I durst not
offer any courtship to her, though I had it in my mind when I brought her
in to me. But I am resolved to do her husband a courtesy, for I think he
is a man that deserves very well. So abroad with my wife by coach to St.
James's, to one Lady Poultny's, where I found my Lord, I doubt, at some
vain pleasure or other. I did give him a short account of what I had done
with Mr. Coventry, and so left him, and to my wife again in the coach, and
with her to the Parke, but the Queene being gone by the Parke to
Kensington, we staid not but straight home and to supper (the first time I
have done so this summer), and so to my office doing business, and then to
my monthly accounts, where to my great comfort I find myself better than I
was still the last month, and now come to L930. I was told to-day, that
upon Sunday night last, being the King's birth-day, the King was at my