In the midst of strange surroundings the time passed rapidly.  Already the Restoration was an accomplished fact.  Charles II was again at Whitehall "in the twelfth year of his reign", as the crown document has it.  The gilded effigy of his sainted father was restored to its niche in the Square Tower at Portsmouth, where all persons passing were ordered to uncover.  With few exceptions the townspeople welcomed the change, the whole place being given up to unrestrained merrymaking.