and so I do see is in great pain, poor man, though he deserves better than
twenty such as either of them, for his abilities and true service to the
King and kingdom. He says there is incoherences, he believes, to be found
between their two reports, which will be pretty work to consider. The
Duke of Albemarle charges W. Coventry that he should tell him, when he
come down to the fleete with Sir G. Carteret, to consult about dividing
the fleete, that the Dutch would not be out in six weeks, which W.
Coventry says is as false as is possible, and he can prove the contrary by
the Duke of Albemarle's own letters. The Duke of Albemarle says that he
did upon sight of the Dutch call a council of officers, and they did
conclude they could not avoid fighting the Dutch; and yet we did go to the
enemy, and found them at anchor, which is a pretty contradiction. And he
tells me that Spragg did the other day say in the House, that the Prince,
at his going from the Duke of Albemarle with his fleete, did tell him that
if the Dutch should come on, the Duke was to follow him, the Prince, with
his fleete, and not fight the Dutch. Out of all this a great deal of good
might well be picked. But it is a sad consideration that all this picking
of holes in one another's coats--nay, and the thanks of the House to the
Prince and the Duke of Albemarle, and all this envy and design to ruin Sir
W. Coventry--did arise from Sir W. Coventry's unfortunate mistake the
other day, in producing of a letter from the Duke of Albemarle, touching
the good condition of all things at Chatham just before the Dutch come up,
and did us that fatal mischiefe; for upon this they are resolved to undo
him, and I pray God they do not. He tells me upon my demanding it that he
thinks the King do not like this their bringing these narratives, and that
they give out that they would have said more but that the King hath
hindered them, that I suppose is about my Lord Sandwich. He is getting a
copy of the Narratives, which I shall then have, and so I parted from him
and away to White Hall, where I met Mr. Creed and Yeabsly, and discoursed
a little about Mr. Yeabsly's business and accounts, and so I to chapel and