pilot on board, who brought us into the river Mayse; and, about two o'clock, the tide being almost spent, we came to anchor within three leagues of the Brill, and in sight of the Hague.
25th.We had a dead calm in the morning; but, about twelve, it began to blow, and at four we got to Delf Haven, and at seven to the Hague, where I heard that the Prince was gone to Dieren. As soon as I came, I writ to Lord Sunderland and Sir William Temple short letters. I spoke with Mr. Meredith.[1]
26th.I waited upon the Pensioner;[2] and, after I had made him my compliments, he told me I could not have come at a time when any proposition from England would be better received, for every body here was now much disposed that way; that he thought the King would do well to put the
- ↑ Mr. Meredith was secretary to the embassy at the Hague.
- ↑ The Pensioner Fagel, thus described by Sir William Temple. "I find the Pensioner is the great man here, and acts all under the Prince's influence, though not without some distaste among the richer sort of people in the towns. He is a person whose dispositions may, I am confident, be proved to make him as partial to England as those of his predecessor (De Witt) were esteemed to France, in case there were any composition of those two interests here. The point upon which I judge this to turn chiefly is that of religion, in which I find him by his discourses very warm, and hear by others that he hath it very much at heart."—Temple's Works, iv. 33.
