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THE TIMES OF CHARLES THE SECOND.
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he said, he intended to live upon his revenues, and do all he can to satisfy his people.[1]
In the evening, my Lord of Essex told the King of his intentions to quit. He said little to him, but was horribly vexed. Sir Stephen Fox kissed the King's hand.[2]' I was with Sir William Temple;
- ↑ The King resolves to live upon his revenues; and if he will keep to the scheme that is now laid before him, he will do it, and lay up £250,000 to clear the anticipations.—Orig. N.
- ↑ "I dined with Sir Stephen Fox, now one of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury. This gentleman came first a poore boy from the quire at Salisbury; then was taken notice of by Bishop Duppa, and afterwards waited on my Lord Percy, who procured for him an inferior place among the clerks of the kitchen and green cloth side, where he was found so humble, diligent, industrious, and prudent in his behaviour, that, his Majesty being in exile, and Mr. Fox waiting, both the King and the Lords about him frequently employed him in their own aflfairs, trusting him with receiving and paying the little money they had. Returning with his Majesty to England, after great wants and great sufferings, his Majesty found him so honest and industrious, and withall so capable and ready, that, being advanced from the Clerk of the Kitchen to that of the Green Cloth, he procured to be Paymaster to the whole Army; and, by his dexterity and punctual dealing among the banquiers, that he was in a short time able to borrow vast sums of them, upon an exigence. The continual turning thus of money, and the soldiers' moderate allowance to him for his keeping touch with them, did so enrich him, that he is believed to be worth at least £200,000, honestly gotten and unenvied, which is next to a miracle. With all this, he continues as humble and ready to do a courtesie as ever he was. He is generous, and lives very honourably; of a swete
