"Ay, and he loves to kiss a pretty girl, too." "Well, what's the harm in that?" "None at all. He's young and comely, and loves his pleasure as a king should." "It'll go hard with the sour-faced psalm-singers, I hear." "Well it ought. Did they not kill the king's father? I hear that at least five hundred are to be hanged." "But what about the Act of Oblivion?" "Marry! as though the king will care aught about the Act of Oblivion. The thing is, the country will be able to enjoy itself." "Well it ought. After a man hath been to church once a week he's done enough religion. After that let him enjoy himself." All this and much more I heard as I passed along the streets; in truth, much of what I saw and heard is not fit to record here, for many of the people might have just been let out of Bedlam, so little did they seem to care for what was clean and decent. Moreover, no notice was taken of these things. There was neither law nor order, while, if some man should say a word rebuking them for wrong-doing, he was immediately pounced upon as a sour-faced Puritan. Such was the difference which was already manifest, even before the new king had set his feet on English soil. It was now the twenty-fourth day in May, and many reported that they had seen a number of vessels bearing the king's retinue far away at sea, but that he would not arrive until the following morning, as he desired to enter the town, not when the people were tired and dusty, but as they appeared after a night of rest and sleep, and when their finery was not bedavered by a day's jostling. I remembered that my father had told me he intended being in Dover on the twenty-sixth of the month, but I imagined that he would make diligent inquiries concerning the coming of the king, and would surely be in Dover before it was too late for him to offer his welcome. I therefore made my way to the _Fox and Hounds_, which I found to be very full of people, and for a long time I was unable to gain any answer to my inquiries, but I discovered presently that not only had Master Philip Rashcliffe been to the inn, but he had also left word for me, in case I should call, to wait for him in a private room which he had hired.