[256] Mentioned by Pepys, July 29, Aug. 8, 12, 1667. [257] “Burnet’s Own Time,” i. 353. The lady afterwards married a gentleman of fortune named Fortrey, and died in 1713. [258] James’s letter is printed in “Smith’s Life, &c., of Pepys,” vol. ii. p. 322. [259] _Quoted_, Lister’s “Life of Clarendon,” ii. 72 (note). [260] “The Story of Nell Gwyn,” p. 197 (note). [261] “Diary,” Jan. 27, 1667–68. [262] July 30, 1667. Mrs. Otter thus addresses her husband in Act iii. Sc. 1: “Is this according to the instrument when I married you, that I would be princess and reign in my own house, and you would be my subject and obey me?” [263] “Diary,” July 23, 1661. [264] Aug. 23, 1662. [265] “Diary,” Feb. 8, 1662–63; May 18, 1663; April 15, 1666. [266] May 18, 1668. [267] Pope’s “Moral Essays,” Epistle iii. [268] Lord Orrery to the Duke of Ormond, Jan. 25, 1666–67. (Orrery, “State Papers,” fol. 1742, p. 219.) [269] “Diary,” Feb. 21, 1664–65. [270] “Diary,” Nov. 11, 1667. [271] Dec. 26, 1667. [272] “Diary,” May 31, 1668. [273] “Royal and Noble Authors.” [274] “Diary,” Oct. 21, 1666. [Illustration: Decoration] [Illustration: Decoration] CHAPTER X. PUBLIC CHARACTERS. “So violent did I find parties in London, that I was assured by several that the Duke of Marlborough was a coward, and Mr. Pope a fool.”--VOLTAIRE. In dealing with the public characters at the time of the Restoration, the two men who were mainly instrumental in bringing that event about--Monk and Montagu--must needs be given a prominent place. George Monk, Duke of Albemarle, was a singularly unheroic character. He was slow and heavy, but had a sufficient supply of good sense, and, in spite of many faults, he had the rare good fortune to be generally loved.[275] He was so popular that ballads were continually being made in his praise. Pepys said there were so many of them that in after times his fame would sound like that of Guy of Warwick.[276] Aubrey tells us that Monk learned his trade of soldiering in the Low Countries, whence he fled after having slain a man. Although he frequently went to sea in command of the fleet, he always remained a soldier, and the seamen laughed behind his back when instead of crying “Tack about,” he would say “Wheel to the right or left.” Pepys tells a story of him to the same effect: “It was pretty to hear the Duke of Albemarle himself to wish that they would come on our ground, meaning the French, for that he would pay them, so as to make them glad to go back to France again; _which was like a general, but not like an admiral_.”[277]