4th July, 1649. Visited Lady Hatton, her lord sojourning at Paris with my father-in-law.
9th July, 1649. Dined with Sir Walter Pye, and my good friend, Mr. Eaton, afterward a judge, who corresponded with me in France.
11th July, 1649. Came to see me old Alexander Rosse, the divine historian and poet; Mr. Henshaw, Mr. Scudamore, and other friends to take leave of me.
GRAVESEND
12th July, 1649. It was about three in the afternoon, I took oars for Gravesend, accompanied by my cousin, Stephens, and sister, Glanville, who there supped with me and returned; whence I took post immediately to Dover, where I arrived by nine in the morning; and, about eleven that night, went on board a barque guarded by a pinnace of eight guns; this being the first time the Packet-boat had obtained a convoy, having several times before been pillaged. We had a good passage, though chased for some hours by a pirate, but he dared not attack our frigate, and we then chased him till he got under the protection of the castle at Calais. It was a small privateer belonging to the Prince of Wales. I carried over with me my servant, Richard Hoare, an incomparable writer of several hands, whom I afterward preferred in the Prerogative Office, at the return of his Majesty. Lady Catherine Scott, daughter of the Earl of Norwich, followed us in a shallop, with Mr. Arthur Slingsby, who left England incognito. At the entrance of the town, the Lieutenant Governor, being on his horse with the guards, let us pass courteously. I visited Sir Richard Lloyd, an English gentleman, and walked in the church, where the ornament about the high altar of black marble is very fine, and there is a good picture of the Assumption. The citadel seems to be impregnable, and the whole country about it to be laid under water by sluices for many miles.
16th July, 1649. We departed from Paris, in company with that very pleasant lady, Lady Catherine Scott, and others. In all this journey we were greatly apprehensive of parties, which caused us to alight often out of our coach and walk separately on foot, with our guns on our shoulders, in all suspected places.
PARIS
1st August, 1649. At three in the afternoon we came to St. Denis, saw the rarities of the church and treasury; and so to Paris that evening.
The next day, came to welcome me at dinner the Lord High Treasurer Cottington, Sir Edward Hyde, Chancellor, Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State, Sir George Carteret, Governor of Jersey, and Dr. Earle, having now been absent from my wife above a year and a half.
18th August, 1649. I went to St. Germains, to kiss his Majesty's hand; in the coach, which was my Lord Wilmot's, went Mrs. Barlow, the King's mistress[39] and mother to the Duke of Monmouth, a brown, beautiful, bold, but insipid creature.