I told Sir W. Coventry of
my letter to Sir R. Brookes, and his answer to me. He advises
me, in what I write to him, to be as short as I can, and obscure,
saving in things fully plain; for that all that he do is to make
mischief; and that the greatest wisdom in dealing with the
Parliament in the world is to say little, and let them get out
what they can by force: which I shall observe. He declared to
me much of his mind to be ruled by his own measures, and not to
go so far as many would have him to the ruin of my Lord
Chancellor, and for which they do endeavour to do what they can
against Sir W. Coventry. "But," says he, "I have done my do in
helping to get him out of the administration of things, for which
he is not fit; but for his life or estate I will have nothing to
say to it: besides that, my duty to my master the Duke of York
is such, that I will perish before I will do any thing to
displease or disoblige him, where the very necessity of the
kingdom do not in my judgment call me." Home; and there met W.
Batelier, who tells me the first great, news, that my Lord
Chancellor is fled this day, and left a paper behind him for the
House of Lords, telling them the reason of his retiring,
complaining of a design for his ruin.
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