Thursday 28 June 1666
Up, and at the office all the morning. At noon home to dinner, and after dinner abroad to Lumbard Streete, there to reckon with Sir Robert Viner for some money, and did sett all straight to my great content, and so home, and all the afternoon and evening at the office, my mind full at this time of getting my accounts over, and as much money in my hands as I can, for a great turne is to be feared in the times, the French having some great design (whatever it is) in hand, and our necessities on every side very great. The Dutch are now known to be out, and we may expect them every houre upon our coast. But our fleete is in pretty good readinesse for them.
8 Annotations
First Reading
Australian Susan • Link
Not strictly to do with this entry, but the UK has just had its first Armed Forces Day and where did they have it? At the Royal Dockyards in Chaham. Sam would have been ever so proud. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_new…
Robert Gertz • Link
"...the French having some great design (whatever it is) in hand..."
Louis standing by map of "Greater France"...with Londonais, capital of provence of Angleterre.
***
"...for a great turne is to be feared in the times..."
"Coventry, that list of officials to be immediately imprisoned and executed upon a successful invasion landing ready?"
"Here, your Grace."
"I see young Pepys on the list? Why, Coventry, you have doubts?"
"Half-French wife, your grace. And of course we all know about his questionable increase in fortune. Normally, not a problem, binds him to the regime...But in an invasion scenario... And of course, as we've discussed his eagerness to take on all aspects of the Naval Office operations makes him the ideal scapegoat in defeat."
"Ah. Quite so. But...We can, in view of his excellent service forego the drawing and quartering? A simple hanging or beheading?"
A. De Araujo • Link
"the French having some great design(whatever it is)in hand"
Didn't Charles II and Louis XIV have some secret "understanding"? If so Sam was far from being an insider.
Mary • Link
Do you mean the Secret Treaty of Dover?
We shan't get to that during the lifetime of the diary, as it wasn't made until 1670.
jeannine • Link
“the French having some great design(whatever it is)in hand”
Didn’t Charles II and Louis XIV have some secret “understanding”? If so Sam was far from being an insider.
(little spoilier) Charles' sister Minette is Louis' sister-in-law and they corresponded quite frequently, although during the current 'war' activity those letters have slowed down a bit. In addition to having a 'close' relative in Louis' vicinity, over time Charles will take money from Louis and does enter into an agreement with him (as Mary noted) at a later date. Sam will never be an 'insider' in regards to any of that activity.
Robert Gertz • Link
"Sam will never be an ‘insider’ in regards to any of that activity."
And yet...
A stone bench in St. James Park...
A copy of "Hudibras" apparently "left behind"...Carefully taken and examined, then after a moment's casual observation of the empty park, opened.
Stamp of "IMF Booksellers, London"...
Triple portrait engraving of Louis, Minette, Charles on one page, on the other, a note...
"Good morrow...Mrs. Pepys...This one you may find truly impossible."
Michael Robinson • Link
“Sam will never be an ‘insider’ in regards to any of that activity.”
And, Robert, when will SP discover the attractive daughter of the desperate vacuum cleaner salesman: ... our man in Seething Lane ...
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
A surreal bit of a SPOILER, after the diary a "what if?" event.
The Treaty of Dover, also known as the Secret Treaty of Dover, was a treaty between England and France signed at Dover on 1 June[1] 1670. It required France to assist England in the king's aim that it would rejoin the Roman Catholic Church and England to assist France in its war of conquest against the Dutch Republic. The Third Anglo-Dutch War was a direct consequence of this treaty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sec…