Ob. 1663.] who had
been, as he called it, the King's seventeenth mistress abroad,
did not leave him till she had got him to give her an order for
4000l. worth of plate to be made for her; but by delays, thanks
be to God! she died before she had it. He confirmed to me the
business of the want of paper at the Council table the other day,
which I have observed; Wooly being to have found it, and did,
being called, tell the King to his face the reason of it. And
Mr. Elvelyn tells me of several of the menial servants of the
Court lacking bread, that have not received a farthing wages
since the King's coming in. He tells me the King of France hath
his mistresses, but laughs at the foolery of our King, that makes
his bastards princes, and loses his revenue upon them, and makes
his mistresses his masters. And the King of France did never
grant Lavaliere any thing to bestow on others, and gives a little
subsistence, but no more, to his bastards. We told me the whole
story of Mrs. Stewart's going away from Court, he knowing her
well; and believes her, up to her leaving the Court, to be as
virtuous as any woman in the world: and told me, from a Lord
that she told it to but yesterday with her own mouth, and a sober
man, that when the Duke of Richmond did make love to her, she did
ask the King, and he did the like also; and that the King did not
deny it, and told this Lord that she was come to that pass as to
resolve to have married any gentleman of 1500l.
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