It was
pretty to hear the Duke of Albemarle himself to wish that they
would come on our ground (meaning the French), for that he!
would pay them so as to make them glad to go back to France
again; which was like a general, but not like an admiral. One at
the table told an odd passage in this late plague: that at
Petersfield (I think he said) one side of the street had every
house almost infected through the town, and the other, not one
shut up. I made Sir G. Carteret merry with telling him how many
land-admirals we are to have this year: Allen at Plymouth,
Holmes at Portsmouth, Spragge for Medway, Teddiman at Dover,
Smith to the Northward, and Harman to the Southward. With Sir
Stephen Fox talking of the sad condition of the King's purse, and
affairs thereby; and how sad the King's life must be, to pass by
his officers every hour, that are four years behind hand unpaid.
Sir W. Coventry tells me plainly, that to all future complaints
of lack of money he will answer but with the shrug of the
shoulder; which methought did come to my heart, to see him to
begin to abandon the King's affairs, and let them sink or swim.
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