and I supped in my Lord’s chamber, where I did perceive that he did begin to show me much more respect than ever he did yet After supper, my Lord sent for me, intending to have me play at cards with him, but I not knowing cribbage, we fell into discourse of many things, and the ship rolled so much that I was not able to stand, and so he bid me go to bed.

16th Come in some with visits, among the rest one from Admiral Opdam,⁹³ who spoke Latin well, but not French nor English, whom my Lord made me to entertain Commissioner Pett⁹⁴ was now come to take care to get all things ready for the King on board My Lord in his best suit, this the first day, in expectation to wait upon the King But Mr Edw Pickering coming from the King brought word that the King would not put my Lord to the trouble of coming to him, but that he would come to the shore to look upon the fleet to-day, which we expected, and had our guns ready to fire, and our scarlet waist-cloathes out and silk pendants, but he did not come. This evening came Mr John Pickering on board, like an asse, with his feathers and new suit that he had made at the Hague My Lord very angry for his staying on shore, bidding me a little before to send for him, telling me that he was afraid that for his father’s sake he might have some mischief done him, unless he used the General’s name. This afternoon Mr Edw Pickering told me in what a sad, poor condition for clothes and money the King was, and all his attendants, when he came to him first from my Lord, their clothes not being worth forty shillings the best of them And how overjoyed the King was when Sir J Greenville brought him some money, so joyful, that he called the Princess Royal⁹⁵ and Duke of York to look upon it as it lay in the portmanteau before it was taken out My Lord told me, too, that the Duke of York is made High Admiral of England.

17th Dr Clerke came to me to tell me that he heard this morning, by some Dutch that are come on board already to see the ships, that there was a Portuguese taken yesterday at the Hague, that had a design to kill the King But this I heard afterwards was only the mistake upon one being observed to walk with his sword naked, he having lost his scabbard Before dinner Mr Edw Pickering and I, W Howe, Pim, and my boy, to Scheveling, where we took coach, and so to the Hague, where walking, intending to find one that might show us the King incognito, I met with Captn Whittington (that had formerly brought a letter to my Lord from the Mayor of London) and he did promise me to do it, but first we went and dined At dinner in came Dr Cade, a merry mad parson of the King’s And they two got the child and me (the others not being able to crowd in) to see the King, who kissed the child very affectionately. Then we kissed his, and the Duke of York’s, and the Princess Royal’s hands. The King seems to be a very sober man, and a very splendid Court he hath in the number of persons of quality that are about him, English very rich in habit From the King to the Lord Chancellor, who did lie bed-rid of the gout he spoke very merrily to the child and me After that, going to see the Queen of Bohemia, I met Dr Fuller, whom I sent to a tavern with Mr Edw Pickering, while I and the rest went to see the Queen, who used us very respectfully her hand we all kissed She seems a very debonaire, but a plain lady In a coach we went to see a house of the Princes Dowager’s⁹⁶ in a park about a mile from the Hague, where there is one of the most beautiful rooms for pictures in the whole world She had here one picture upon the top, with these words, dedicating it to the memory of her husband Incomparabili manto, inconsolabilis vidua.

18th Very early up, and, hearing that the Duke of York, our Lord High Admiral, would go on board to- day, Mr Pickering and I took waggon for Scheveling But the wind being so very high that no boats could get off from shore, we returned to the Hague (having breakfasted with a gentleman of the Duke’s and Commissioner Pett, sent on purpose to give notice to my Lord of his coming), we got a boy of the town to go along with us, and he showed us the church where Van Trump lies entombed with a very fine monument. His epitaph is concluded thus Tandem Bello Anglico tantum non victor, certe invictus, vivere et’vincere desut There is a sea-fight cut in marble, with the smoake, the best expressed that ever. I saw in my life From thence to the great church, that stands in a fine great market-place, over against the Stadt-house, and there I saw a stately tombe of the old Prince of Orange, of marble and brass, wherein among other rarities there are the angels with their trumpets expressed as it were crying Here were very fine organs in both the churches. It is a most sweet town, with bridges, and a river in every street We met with Commissioner Pett going down to the water-side with Major Harly, who is going upon a dispatch into England.