Quaker woman, that delivered to him a desire of hers in writing The King showed her Sir J Minnes, as a man the fittest for her quaking religion, she modestly saying nothing till he begun seriously to discourse with her, arguing the truth of his spirit against hers, she replying still with these words, ‘O King!’ and thou’d all along The general talk of the towne still is of Colonel Turner, about the robbery who it is thought, will be hanged I heard the Duke of York tell to-night, how letters are come that fifteen are condemned for the late plot by the Judges at York, and, among others, Captain Oates, against whom it was proved that he drew his sword at his going out, and flinging away the scabbard, said that he would either return victor or be hanged.

18th By coach to the ’Change, after having been at the Coffee-house, where I hear Turner³ is found guilty of felony and burglary, and strange stories of his confidence at the barr, but yet great indiscretion in his arguing All desirous of his being hanged.

20th My Lord Sandwich did seal a lease for the house he is now taking in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which stands him in £250 per annum rent Sir Richard Ford told me that Turner is to be hanged tomorrow, and with what impudence he hath carried out his trial, but that last night, when he brought him news of his death, he began to be sober and shed some tears, and he hopes will die a penitent, he having already confessed all the thing, but says it was partly done for a joke, and partly to get an occasion of obliging the old man by his care in getting him his things again he having some hopes of being the better by him in his estate at his death Mr Pierce tells me that my Lady Castlemaine is not at all set by by the King, but that he do doat upon Mrs Stewart only, and that to the leaving of all business in the world, and to the open slighting of the Queene that he values not who sees him or stands by him while he dallies with her openly and then privately in her chamber below, where the very sentrys observe his going in and out, and that so commonly, that the Duke or any of the nobles, when they would ask where the King is, they will ordinarily say, ‘Is the King above, or below?’ meaning with Mrs Stewart that the King do not openly disown my Lady Castlemaine, but that she comes to Court, but that my Lord FitzHarding and the Hambletons,⁴ and sometimes my Lord Sandwich, they say, intrigue with her But he says my Lord Sandwich will lead her from her lodgings in the darkest and obscurest manner, and leave her at the entrance into the Queene’s lodgings, that he might be the least observed that the Duke of Monmouth the King do still doat on beyond measure, insomuch that the King only, the Duke of York, and Prince Rupert, and the Duke of Monmouth, do now wear deep mourning, that is, long cloaks, for the Duchesse of Savoy so that he mourns as a Prince of the Blood, while the Duke of York do no more, and all the nobles of the land not so much, which gives great offence, and he sees the Duke of York do consider But that the Duke of York do give himself up to business, and is like to prove a noble prince, and so indeed I do from my heart think he will He says that it is believed as well as hoped that care is taken to lay up a hidden treasure of money by the King against a bad day I pray God it be so!

21st Up, and after sending my wife to my aunt Wright’s to get a place to see Turner hanged, I to the ’Change, and seeing people flock in the City, I enquired, and found that Turner was not yet hanged And so I went among them to Leadenhall Street, at the end of Lyme Street, near where the robbery was done, and to St Mary Axe, where he lived And there I got for a shilling to stand upon the wheel of a cart, in great pain, above an hour before the execution was done, he delaying the time by long discourses and prayers one after another, in hopes of a reprieve, but none come, and at last was flung off the ladder in his cloak A comely-looked man he was and kept his countenance to the end I was sorry to see him It was believed there were at least 12 or 14,000 people in the street.

22nd To Deptford, and there viewed Sir W Petty’s vessel, which hath an odd appearance, but not such as people do make of it.

26th Tom Killigrew told us of a fire last night in my Lady Castlemaine’s lodging, where she bid £40 for one to adventure the fetching of a cabinet out, which at last was got to be done, and the fire at last quenched without doing much wrong.