at double quick speed, and he had his Ironsides
so laid about them in the great battle
which was fought there, that they completely
beat the Scottish men, and destroyed
the Royalist army, though the Scottish men
fought so gallantly that it took five hours
to do.

The escape of Charles after this battle of
Worcester did him good service long
afterwards, for it induced many of the generous
English people to take a romantic interest in
him, and think much better of him than
he ever deserved. He fled in the night with
not more than sixty followers to the house of
a Catholic lady in Staffordshire. There, for
his greater safety, the whole sixty left him.
He cropped his hair, stained his face and
hands brown as if they were sunburnt, put
on the clothes of a labouring countryman,
and went out in the morning with his axe in
his hand, accompanied by four wood-cutters
who were brothers, and another man who
was their brother-in-law. These good fellows
made a bed for him under a tree, as the
weather was very bad; and the wife of one
of them brought him food to eat; and the old
mother of the four brothers came and fell
down on her knees before him in the wood,
and thanked God that her sons were engaged
in saving his life. At night, he came
out of the forest and went on to another
house which was near the river Severn, with
the intention of passing into Wales; but the
place swarmed with soldiers, and the bridges
were guarded, and all the boats were made
fast. So, after lying in a hayloft covered
over with hay, for some time, he came out
of this place, attended by COLONEL CARELESS,
a Catholic gentleman who had met him
there, and with whom he lay hid all next
day, up in the shady branches of a fine old
oak. It was lucky for the King that it was
September-time, and that the leaves had not
begun to fall, as he and the Colonel, perched
up in this tree, could catch glimpses of
the soldiers riding about below, and could
hear the crash in the wood as they went about
beating the boughs.

After this, he walked and walked until his
feet were all blistered, and, having been
concealed all one day in a house which was
searched by the troopers while he was there,
went with Lord Wilmot, another of his good
friends, to a place called Bently, where one
Miss Lane, a Protestant lady, had obtained
a pass to be allowed to ride through the
guards to see a relation of hers near Bristol,
Disguised as a servant, he rode on the saddle
before this young lady to the house of SIR
JOHN WINTER, while Lord Wilmot rode
there boldly, like a plain country gentleman,
with dogs at his heels. It happened that
Sir John Winter's butler had been a servant
in Richmond Palace, and knew Charles
the moment he set eyes upon him; but,
the butler was faithful, and kept the secret.
As no ship could be found there to carry
him abroad, it was planned that he should
go—still travelling with Miss Lane as her
servant—to another house, at Trent, near
Sherborne in Dorsetshire; and then Miss
Lane and her cousin, Mr. Lascelles, who
had gone on horseback beside her all the
way, went home. I hope Miss Lane was
going to marry that cousin, for I am sure she
must have been a brave, kind girl. If I had
been that cousin, I should certainly have
loved her.

When Charles, lonely for the loss of Miss
Lane, was safe at Trent, a ship was hired
at Lyme, the master of which engaged to
take two gentlemen to France. In the
evening of the same day, the King—now
riding as servant before another young lady
—set off for a public-house at a place called
Charmouth, where the captain of the vessel
was to take him on board. But the captain's
wife, being afraid of her husband's getting
into trouble, locked him up, and would not
let him sail. Then they went away to Bridport,
and coming to the inn there, found the
stable-yard full of soldiers who were on the
look-out for Charles, and who talked about
him while they drank. He had such presence
of mind, however, that he led the horses of
his party through the yard as any other
servant might have done, and said, " Come out
of the way, you soldiers; let us have room
to pass here!" As he went along, he met a
half-tipsy ostler, who rubbed his eyes and
said to him, " Why, I was formerly servant
to Mr. Potter at Exeter, and surely I have
sometimes seen you there, young man?" He
certainly had, for Charles had lodged there.
His ready answer was, " Ah, I did live with
him once; but I have no time to talk now.
We'll have a pot of beer together when I
come back."

From this dangerous place he returned to
Trent, and lay there concealed several days.
Then, he escaped to Heale, near Salisbury,
where, in the house of a widow lady, he
was hidden five days, until the master of
a collier lying off Shoreham in Sussex,
undertook to convey " a gentleman" to France.
On the night of the fifteenth of October,
accompanied by two colonels and a merchant,
the King rode to Brighton, then a
little fishing village, to give the captain
of the ship a supper before going on board;
but, so many people knew him, that this
captain knew him too, and not only he, but
the landlord and landlady also. Before he
went away, the landlord came behind his
chair, kissed his hand, and said he hoped to
live to be a lord and to see his wife a lady;
at which Charles laughed. They had had a
good supper by this time, and plenty of smoking
and drinking, at which the King was a
first-rate hand; so, the captain assured him
that he would stand by him, and he did. It
was agreed that the captain should pretend
to sail to Deal, and that Charles should
address the sailors and say he was a