* * * * *
That night too, as I lay abed, I thought much of all this again. I had
established a great friendliness with the Fathers by now, telling them I
was come up again to London, as Mr. Whitbread had recommended me, until
the Court should go again to Windsor, and that perhaps I should go with
it thither. They had told me at that, that one of their Fathers was
there, named Mr. Bedingfeld (who was of the Oxburgh family, I think),
and that he was confessor to the Duke of York, and that they would
recommend me to him if I should go. But all through my anxiety I
comforted myself with the assurance the King had given to me, that,
whatever else might ensue, not a hair of their heads should be touched,
for I had great confidence in His Majesty's word, given so solemnly.
CHAPTER VI
Now begins in earnest that chapter of horrors that will be with me till
I die; and the learning of that lesson that I might have learned long
before from one that was himself a Prince, and knew what he was talking
of--I mean King David, who bids us in his psalm to "put no trust in
princes nor in any child of man."
For several days all passed peacefully enough. I waited upon Mr.
Chiffinch, and asked whether the King had spoken of me again, and was
told he had not; so I went about my business, which was to haunt the
taverns and to frequent the company of the Jesuits.
I made an acquaintance or two in the taverns at this time, which served
me later, though not in the particular manner that I had wished; but for
the most part matters seemed quiet enough. Men did not speak a great
deal of the Catholics; and I always fenced off questions by beginning,
in every company that I found myself in, by speaking of some Church of
England divine with a great deal of admiration, soon earning for myself,
I fear, the name of a pious and grave fellow, but at the same time, of a
safe man in matters of Church and State.
One of these acquaintances was a Mr. Rumbald, a maltster (which was all
I thought him then), who frequented the Mitre tavern, without Aldgate,
where I went one day, dressed in one of my sober country suits, wearing
my hat at a somewhat rakish cock, that I might seem to be a simple
fellow that aped town-ways.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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