life.' The ridiculousness of this, with the simplicity of the man,
entertained us till we came to Nantz. We met by the way good grapes
and walnuts growing, of which we culled out the best.

Nantz is a passable good town, but decayed: some monasteries in it,
but none good nor rich. There was in a nunnery, when I was there, a
daughter of Secretary Windebank. There is English provisions, and of
all sorts, cheap and good. We hired a boat to carry us up to Orleans,
and we were towed up all the river of Loire so far. Every night we
went on shore to bed, and every morning carried into the boat wine and
fruit, and bread, with some flesh, which we dressed in the boat, for
it had a hearth, on which we burnt charcoal: we likewise caught carps,
which were the fattest and the best I ever eat in my life. And of all
my travels none were, for travel sake as I may call it, so pleasant as
this; for we saw the finest cities, seats, woods, meadows, pastures,
and champaign that I ever saw in my life, adorned with the most
pleasant river of Loire; of which, at Orleans, we took our leaves.
Arriving, about the middle of November 1650, at Paris, we went, so
soon as we could get clothes, to wait on the Queen-Mother and the
Princess Henrietta. The Queen entertained us very respectfully, and
after many favours done us, and discoursing in private with your
father about affairs of state, he received her Majesty's letters to
send to the King, who was then on his way to Scotland. We kissed her
hand and went to Calais, with resolution that I should go to England,
to send my husband more money, for this long journey cost us all we
could procure: yet this I will tell you, praised be God for his
peculiar grace herein, that your father nor I ever borrowed money nor
owed for clothes, nor diet, nor lodging beyond sea in our lives, which
was very much, considering the straits we were in many times, and the
bad custom our countrymen had that way, which did redound much to the