Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/49

Rh of Leeds told me he happened to go into the King's closet soon after he came out, and the King asked him if he had seen the new Secretary. The Duke answered no, he met nobody but my Lord Romney, little thinking he could be the man. The King told him he knew he would laugh at his being so, but he could not think of a proper person at present, and knew he was the only Englishman he could put in and out again without disobliging him. The Duke said he did not laugh before, but could not forbear when he heard he was to be at the Secretary's office like a footman at a play, to keep a place till his betters came."

As far as we can judge from his own journal, and the opinion of cotemporaries, Sidney showed no want of energy or ability when Minister at the Hague; and subsequently, as the great channel of correspondence with the Prince of Orange, if