of a true cock
of the game. Sometimes a cock that has had ten to one against him will
by chance give an unlucky blow, will strike the other starke dead in a
moment, that he never stirs more; but the common rule is, that though a
cock neither runs nor dies, yet if any man will bet L10 to a crowne, and
nobody take the bet, the game is given over, and not sooner. One thing
more it is strange to see how people of this poor rank, that look as
if they had not bread to put in their mouths, shall bet three or four
pounds at one bet, and lose it, and yet bet as much the next battle (so
they call every match of two cocks), so that one of them will lose L10
or L20 at a meeting. Thence, having enough of it, by coach to my Lord
Sandwich's, where I find him within with Captain Cooke and his boys,
Dr. Childe, Mr. Madge, and Mallard, playing and singing over my Lord's
anthem which he hath made to sing in the King's Chappell: my Lord
saluted me kindly and took me into the withdrawing-room, to hear it at
a distance, and indeed it sounds very finely, and is a good thing, I
believe, to be made by him, and they all commend it. And after that was
done Captain Cooke and his two boys did sing some Italian songs, which
I must in a word say I think was fully the best musique that I ever yet
heard in all my life, and it was to me a very great pleasure to hear
them. After all musique ended, my Lord going to White Hall, I went along
with him, and made a desire for to have his coach to go along with my
cozen Edward Pepys's hearse through the City on Wednesday next, which
he granted me presently, though he cannot yet come to speak to me in the
familiar stile that he did use to do, nor can I expect it. But I was the
willinger of this occasion to see whether he would deny me or no, which
he would I believe had he been at open defyance against me. Being not a
little pleased with all this, though I yet see my Lord is not right yet,
I thanked his Lordship and parted with him in White Hall. I back to my
Lord's, and there took up W. Howe in a coach, and carried him as far as
the Half Moone, and there set him down. By the way, talking of my Lord,
who is come another and a better man than he was lately, and God be
praised for it, and he says that I shall find my Lord as he used to be
to me, of which I have good hopes, but I shall beware of him, I mean W.
Howe, how I trust him, for I perceive he is not so discreet as I took
him for, for he has told Captain Ferr