Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/389

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THE TIMES OF CHARLES THE SECOND.
273

My Lord Halifax is stolen down from Sir William Coventry's to Bufford, and none of his friends pretend to know whether he will come up any more. You hear a change is made in the Council, which happened while I was at Sheen. The enclosed will give you, I suppose, an account of it from one that is mightily concerned in the Prince's opinion upon it, and a great deal in yours. I doubt whether you will make your court well in allowing it here, for my Lord Sunderland rails at him, beyond all the rest of the four; and, indeed, I think against all the rest of mankind. And yet, I do verily believe, he meant no worse to the King in what he did, but could not break company so easily as you know others do. And the rest of them it seems were resolved upon it, with some others who shrank, ever since the King's speech to the Houses; and nothing could persuade them into the truth and sincereness of your business in Holland, because they thought it of so different a piece with all the rest. 'Tis to no purpose to tell you particulars, and perhaps the less you know the better; and if you knew nothing beyond instructions, 'twere not the worst. I had written you a long letter from Sheen, by Bridges, when he was to go away by frigate this day se'nnight; but when

VOL. I.
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