THE ESCAPE OF CHARLES II. FROM WORCESTER.

7 Gathered them.-At the Restoration, the scattered limbs of Montrose were gathered, and were interred with much ceremony in St. Giles's Cathedral.

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8 The lofty ladder.-Montrose was hanged on a gibbet thirty feet high, at the Cross of Edinburgh. The "ladder" to reach it must needs have been "lofty."

12. THE ESCAPE OF CHARLES II. FROM

1

WORCESTER.

1651

1. When Charles the Second saw that the Battle of Worcester was 'completely lost, he rode away with a few gentlemen, in the hope that he might get to London before the news of his defeat reached the capital. So he went on in the dark by quiet ways for twenty miles, until he reached a place where he got a little bread and cheese.

A.D.

2. There he changed his dress, with the intention of going on foot to London. He put on an old green jacket, so thread-bare as to be white in many places; a leathern 'doublet; and a greasy old gray hat, to cover his close-cropped head. In this costume he went with a farmer to hide in a wood, where he lay all next day in a very heavy rain. Then he formed the design of trying to cross the Severn into Wales.

3. As he and a cutter of wood went in the dark towards the river, they got a great fright from a miller, whom they saw in his white clothes sitting at his door; and who, when they would not stand, chased them, crying, "Rogues!"

4. The King did not cross the river Severn, owing to the ford being 'guarded; and after hiding in a barn for a time, he made his way back to the wood of Boscobel 2-a wretched-looking figure, creeping

along with old shoes, which made his feet so sore that he was obliged to put bits of paper between his toes to ease the smart.

5. Meeting in the wood a friend called Colonel Careless, the King climbed with him into a leafy oak-tree. A cushion having been placed between two forking branches, he lay down with his head on the Colonel's knee to snatch a little sleep. It was well that the leaves were thick, for the two 'fugitives saw the soldiers who were searching for them in the wood.

6. Soon after this, having left Boscobel, Charles put on the gray dress of a farmer's son. He cast off the old green coat, and exchanged the name Will Jones for the name Will Jackson. Then, mounted on a horse, he took the wife of Colonel Lane up on a 'pillion behind him, as the custom was, and rode with her towards Bristol.

7. On the way they stopped at various houses. On these occasions the King, pretending to be sick with the ague, always went to bed at once, and had his food carried to him. Day by day Lord Wilmot, a faithful friend, followed the journey with a hawk on his wrist and a couple of spaniels at his horse's heels, pretending to be occupied in 'fowling, but really keeping a close watch lest any danger should come to the King.

8. Charles had many narrow escapes. The mare he rode having cast a shoe, he was obliged to stop at a smithy. As he was holding the animal's foot, the blacksmith said that he had not yet heard of the 'capture of that rogue, Charles Stewart. Thereupon

THE ESCAPE OF CHARLES II. FROM WORCESTER.

53

the very rogue himself-no doubt having a quiet inward laugh on the subject-said that, if Charles were taken, he certainly deserved to be hanged for bringing in the Scots.

9. In a certain house he was 'recognized by the butler, who had been servant to one of his attendants. Eating bread and butter and drinking ale in the buttery with some of the servants, as was fitting in the circumstances of his disguise, he heard a man, who turned out to be one of his own regiment of guards, giving a minute account of the Battle of Worcester.

10. "I asked him," said Charles, who appeared to be merely a groom, for his hands were stained with walnut-juice and his dress was hodden gray, “what kind of man the King was; to which he answered by describing 'exactly both my clothes and my horse; and then, looking on me, he told me that the King was at least three fingers taller than I. Thereupon I made what haste I could out of the buttery."

11. Having learned that no ship for France would leave Bristol for a month, Charles went secretly to a house called Trent, on the borders of Somersetshire, and from that place sent Lord Wilmot to bargain for a ship to carry him off from Lyme, in Dorsetshire.

12. The bargain having been struck, the King went to an inn at that place, and found the whole house and stable-yard full of Cromwell's redcoats, preparing for an 'expedition against Jersey. There was nothing for it but to put a bold face on; so

Charles led his horse right in among the soldiers,
who began to storm and scold at him for a blunder-
ing fool.
This boldness served its purpose, and
nobody suspected him.

13. But at Lyme as well as at Bristol he was disappointed. It happened that the skipper of the hired vessel told his wife that he was going to sea at once, and that he was to be well paid for it; but she was either so afraid of his mixing himself up with a secret business, or so angry at being kept out of the secret, that she locked his door on the night fixed for sailing, and would not let him go.

14. After a 'failure at Southampton, a ship was found at Shoreham, in Sussex. Before the arrangement was completed, the King amused himself at Stonehenge one day in counting the stones-a proof of his easy temper and his great coolness in time of danger.

4

15. At the inn of Brighton, before he embarked, the landlord suddenly kissed his hand as he leaned it on a chair; and the master of the ship knew him right well too. But they were too faithful to betray him; and he got safely off the English shore at last.

16. When the ship in which he sailed was just in sight of France, a suspicious-looking vessel appeared; on seeing which Charles and Wilmot took to the little cock-boat, and were rowed ashore. The ship that frightened them turned out to be merely a French hoy, and not, as they had feared, an Ostend privateer.

5

1 Battle of Worcester (Woos'ter). | ands, off the north west coast of -Fought in the neighbourhood of Worcester, September 3rd, 1651.

2 Boscobel.-A lonely house on the borders of Staffordshire, occupied by a farmer named Penderell.

3 Jer'sey. One of the Channel Isl.

France.

4 Stone/henge. - Circles of huge stones, in Wiltshire; supposed to have been a Druid temple.

5 Ostend'. On the west coast of Flanders, in Belgium.

13. CROMWELL AND THE LONG PARLIAMENT.

1. Some time after the 'execution of King Charles the First a dispute arose between Oliver Cromwell and that small body of men that was all that remained of the Long Parliament. There was a wish. on the part of the leaders of the Parliament to bring in a number of Presbyterians once more. Now, as Cromwell feared this section, he opposed their admission into the House. And when he saw

that some were determined to have them in, he took the bold step of 'expelling the Long Parliament.

2. On a certain April day, while he was 'discussing the affairs of the Government in his lodging at Whitehall, one of his officers, named Colonel Ingoldsby, ran in to tell him that the Commons were passing a Bill to admit the Presbyterians, and that they hoped it would be all over before he heard