Gone for the day

(Sunday). This day I put on first my fine cloth suit made of a cloak that had like to have been a year ago, the very day that I put it on.
After sermon in the morning Mr. Cook came from London with a packet, bringing news how all the young lords that were not in arms against the Parliament do now sit. That a letter is come from the King to the House, which is locked up by the Council ‘till next Tuesday that it may be read in the open House when they meet again, they having adjourned till then to keep a fast tomorrow. And so the contents is not yet known.
13,000l. of the 20,000l. given to General Monk is paid out of the Exchequer, he giving 12l. among the teller clerks of Exchequer.
My Lord called me into the great cabin below, where I opened my letters and he told me that the Presbyterians are quite mastered by the Cavaliers, and that he fears Mr. Crew did go a little too far the other day in keeping out the young lords from sitting. That he do expect that the King should be brought over suddenly, without staying to make any terms at all, saying that the Presbyterians did intend to have brought him in with such conditions as if he had been in chains. But he shook his shoulders when he told me how Monk had betrayed him, for it was he that did put them upon standing to put out the lords and other members that came not within the qualifications, which he did not like, but however he had done his business, though it be with some kind of baseness.
After dinner I walked a great while upon the deck with the chyrurgeon and purser, and other officers of the ship, and they all pray for the King’s coming, which I pray God send.

a day made of oak
unknown among the clerks

fears go far

sitting as if in chains
shook me up

I walk it off


Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 29 April 1660.

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