The villany of the rebels proceeding now so far as to try, condemn, and murder our excellent King on the 30th of this month, struck me with such horror, that I kept the day of his martyrdom a fast, and would not be present at that execrable wickedness; receiving the sad account of it from my brother George, and Mr. Owen, who came to visit me this afternoon, and recounted all the circumstances.
1st February, 1649. Now were Duke Hamilton, the Earl of Norwich, Lord Capell, etc., at their trial before the rebels' New Court of Injustice.
15th February, 1649. I went to see the collection of one Trean, a rich merchant, who had some good pictures, especially a rare perspective of Stenwyck; from thence, to other virtuosos.
The painter, La Neve has an Andromeda, but I think it a copy after Vandyke from Titian, for the original is in France. Webb, at the Exchange, has some rare things in miniature, of Breughel's, also Putti, in twelve squares, that were plundered from Sir James Palmer.
At Du Bois, we saw two tables of Putti, that were gotten, I know not how, out of the Castle of St. Angelo, by old Petit, thought to be Titian's; he had some good heads of Palma, and one of Stenwyck. Bellcar showed us an excellent copy of his Majesty's Sleeping Venus and the Satyr, with other figures; for now they had plundered, sold, and dispersed a world of rare paintings of the King's, and his loyal subjects. After all, Sir William Ducy showed me some excellent things in miniature, and in oil of Holbein's; Sir Thomas More's head, and a whole-length figure of Edward VI., which were certainly his Majesty's; also a picture of Queen Elizabeth; the Lady Isabella Thynne; a rare painting of Rothenhamer, being a Susanna; and a Magdalen, of Quintin, the blacksmith; also a Henry VIII., of Holbein; and Francis I., rare indeed, but of whose hand I know not.
16th February, 1649. Paris being now strictly besieged by the Prince de Condé, my wife being shut up with her father and mother, I wrote a letter of consolation to her: and, on the 22d, having recommended Obadiah Walker, a learned and most ingenious person, to be tutor to, and travel with, Mr. Hillyard's two sons, returned to Sayes Court.
25th February, 1649. Came to visit me Dr. Joyliffe, discoverer of the lymphatic vessels, and an excellent anatomist.
26th February, 1649. Came to see me Captain George Evelyn, my kinsman, the great traveler, and one who believed himself a better architect than really he was; witness the portico in the Garden at Wotton; yet the great room at Albury is somewhat better understood. He had a large mind, but over-built everything.
27th February, 1649. Came out of France my wife's uncle (Paris still besieged), being robbed at sea by the Dunkirk pirates: I lost, among other goods, my wife's picture, painted by Monsieur Bourdon.
5th March, 1649. Now were the Lords murdered in the Palace Yard.