1668-1669

March 1st. Up, and to White Hall to the Committee of Tangier, but it did
not meet. But here I do hear first that my Lady Paulina Montagu did die
yesterday; at which I went to my Lord's lodgings, but he is shut up with
sorrow, and so not to be spoken with: and therefore I returned, and to
Westminster Hall, where I have not been, I think, in some months. And
here the Hall was very full, the King having, by Commission to some Lords
this day, prorogued the Parliament till the 19th of October next: at which
I am glad, hoping to have time to go over to France this year. But I was
most of all surprised this morning by my Lord Bellassis, who, by
appointment, met me at Auditor Wood's, at the Temple, and tells me of a
duell designed between the Duke of Buckingham and my Lord Halifax, or Sir
W. Coventry; the challenge being carried by Harry Saville, but prevented
by my Lord Arlington, and the King told of it; and this was all the
discourse at Court this day. But I, meeting Sir W. Coventry in the Duke
of York's chamber, he would not own it to me, but told me that he was a
man of too much peace to meddle with fighting, and so it rested: but the
talk is full in the town of the business. Thence, having walked some
turns with my cozen Pepys, and most people, by their discourse, believing
that this Parliament will never sit more, I away to several places to look
after things against to-morrow's feast, and so home to dinner; and thence,
after noon, my wife and I out by hackneycoach, and spent the afternoon in
several places, doing several things at the 'Change and elsewhere against
to-morrow; and, among others, I did also bring home a piece of my face
cast in plaister, for to make a wizard upon, for my eyes. And so home,
where W. Batelier come, and sat with us; and there, after many doubts, did
resolve to go on with our feast and dancing to-morrow; and so, after
supper, left the maids to make clean the house, and to lay the cloth, and
other things against to-morrow, and we to bed.