The Diary of Samuel Pepys [360]
are so many and so known, that, he tells me, upon all occasions of joy or sorrow in a Grandee's family, my Lord Embassador is fain to send one with EN HORA BUENA (if it be upon a marriage or birth of a child), or a PESA ME, if it be upon the death of a child, or so. And these ceremonies are so set, and the words of the compliment, that he hath been sent from my Lord when he hath done no more than send in word to the Grandee that one was there from the Embassador; and he knowing what was his errand, that hath been enough, and he never spoken with him; nay, several Grandees having been to marry a daughter, have wrote letters to my Lord to give him notice, and out of the greatness of his wisdom to desire his advice, though people he never saw; and then my Lord he answers by commending the greatness of his discretion in making so good an alliance, &c. and so ends. He says that it is so far from dishonour to a man to give private revenge for an affront, that the contrary is a disgrace; they holding that he that receives an affront is not fit to appear in the sight of the world till he hath revenged himself; and therefore, that a gentleman there that receives an affront oftentimes never appears again in the world till he hath, by some private way or other, revenged himself: and that, on this account, several have followed their enemies privately to the Indys, thence to Italy, thence to France and back again, waiting for an opportunity to be revenged. He says my Lord was fain to keep a letter from the Duke of York to the Queene of Spain a great while in his hands, before he could think fit to deliver it, till he had learnt whether the Queene could receive it, it being directed to his cosen. He says that many ladies in Spain, after they are found to be with child, do never stir out of their beds or chambers till they are brought to bed: so ceremonious they are in that point also. He tells me of their wooing by serenades at the window, and that their friends do always make the match; but yet they have opportunities to meet at masse at church, and there they make love: that the Court there hath no dancing nor visits at night to see the King or Queene, but is always just like a cloyster, nobody stirring in it; that my Lord Sandwich wears a beard now, turned up in the Spanish manner. But that which pleases me most indeed is, that the peace which he hath made with Spain is now printed here, and is acknowledged by all the merchants to be the best peace that ever England had with them; and it appears that the King thinks it so, for this is printed before the ratification is gone over: whereas what with France and Holland was not in a good while after, till copys came over of it in English out of Holland and France, that it was a reproach not to have it printed here. This I am mighty glad of; and is the first and only piece of good news, or thing fit to be owned, that this nation hath done several years.
28th. All the morning at the office busy upon an Order of Council, wherein they are mightily at a loss what to advise about our discharging of seamen by ticket, there being no money to pay their wages before January. After dinner comes Sir Fr. Hollis to me about business; and I with him by coach to the Temple, and there I light; all the way he telling me romantic lies of himself and his family, how they have been Parliament-men for Grimsby, he and his forefathers, this 140 years; and his father is now: and himself, at this day, stands for to be with his father, [Jervas Hollis and Sir Frecheville Hollis represented Grimsby in 1669. --CHAMBERLAYNES'S ANTIQUAE NOTITIA.] by the death of his fellow burgess; and that he believes it will cost him as much as it did his predecessor, which was 300l. in ale, and 52l. in buttered ale; which I believe is one of his devilish lies.
30th. To the Duke of York to Council, where the officers of the Navy did attend; and my Lord Ashly did move that an assignment for money on the Act might be put into the hands of the East India Company, or City of London, which he thought the seamen would
28th. All the morning at the office busy upon an Order of Council, wherein they are mightily at a loss what to advise about our discharging of seamen by ticket, there being no money to pay their wages before January. After dinner comes Sir Fr. Hollis to me about business; and I with him by coach to the Temple, and there I light; all the way he telling me romantic lies of himself and his family, how they have been Parliament-men for Grimsby, he and his forefathers, this 140 years; and his father is now: and himself, at this day, stands for to be with his father, [Jervas Hollis and Sir Frecheville Hollis represented Grimsby in 1669. --CHAMBERLAYNES'S ANTIQUAE NOTITIA.] by the death of his fellow burgess; and that he believes it will cost him as much as it did his predecessor, which was 300l. in ale, and 52l. in buttered ale; which I believe is one of his devilish lies.
30th. To the Duke of York to Council, where the officers of the Navy did attend; and my Lord Ashly did move that an assignment for money on the Act might be put into the hands of the East India Company, or City of London, which he thought the seamen would