Upon the King's restoration, the Duke of York, then made Admiral,
appointed ships to carry over the company and servants of the King,
who were very great. His Highness appointed for my husband and his
family a third-rate frigate, called the Speedwell; but his Majesty
commanded my husband to wait on him in his own ship. We had by the
States' order sent on board to the King's most eminent servants, great
store of provisions: for our family we had sent on board the Speedwell
a tierce of claret, a hogshead of Rhenish wine, six dozen of fowls, a
dozen of gammons of bacon, a great basket of bread, and six sheep, two
dozen of neats' tongues, and a great box of sweetmeats. Thus taking
our leaves of those obliging persons we had conversed with in the
Hague, we went on board upon the 23rd of May, about two o'clock in the
afternoon. The King embarked at four of the clock, upon which we set
sail, the shore being covered with people, and shouts from all places
of a good voyage, which was seconded with many volleys of shot
interchanged: so favourable was the wind, that the ships' wherries
went from ship to ship to visit their friends all night long. But who
can sufficiently express the joy and gallantry of that voyage, to see
so many great ships, the best in the world, to hear the trumpets and
all other music, to see near a hundred brave ships sail before the
wind with vast cloths and streamers, the neatness and cleanness of the
ships, the strength and jollity of the mariners, the gallantry of the
commanders, the vast plenty of all sorts of provisions; but above all,
the glorious majesties of the King and his two brothers, were so
beyond man's expectation and expression! The sea was calm, the moon
shone at full, and the sun suffered not a cloud to hinder his prospect
of the best sight, by whose light, and the merciful bounty of God, he
was set safely on shore at Dover in Kent, upon the 25th [Footnote:
Probably a mistake for the 26th] of May, 1660.
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