himself to content in the country. He gone and my wife gone abroad, I out
also to and fro, to see and be seen, among others to find out in Thames
Streete where Betty Howlett is come to live, being married to Mrs.
Michell's son; which I did about the Old Swan, but did not think fit to go
thither or see them. Thence by water to Redriffe, reading a new French
book my Lord Bruncker did give me to-day, "L'Histoire Amoureuse des
Gaules,"

[This book, which has frequently been reprinted, was written by
Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy, for the amusement of his mistress,
Madame de Montglas, and consists of sketches of the chief ladies of
the court, in which he libelled friends and foes alike. These
circulated in manuscript, and were printed at Liege in 1665. Louis
XIV. was so much annoyed with the book that he sent the author to
the Bastille for over a year.]

being a pretty libel against the amours of the Court of France. I walked
up and down Deptford yarde, where I had not been since I come from living
at Greenwich, which is some months. There I met with Mr. Castle, and was
forced against my will to have his company back with me. So we walked and
drank at Halfway house and so to his house, where I drank a cupp of syder,
and so home, where I find Mr. Norbury newly come to town to see us. After
he gone my wife tells me the ill newes that our Susan is sicke and gone to
bed, with great pain in her head and back, which troubles us all. However
we to bed expecting what to-morrow would produce. She hath we conceive
wrought a little too much, having neither maid nor girle to help her.

2nd. Up and find the girle better, which we are glad of, and with Sir W.
Batten to White Hall by coach. There attended the Duke as usual. Thence
with Captain Cocke, whom I met there, to London, to my office, to consult