posed, in letter-writing. Night closed in; supper-time arrived; the ordinary attendants assembled to await the coming of his majesty to partake of the customary meal; after some little delay, the parliamentary commissioners and other persons in authority, who were in the habit of waiting upon his majesty at that time, began to suspect that something was wrong. Cromwell had already warned Colonel Whalley, who was the chief military person there, of the rumours of some attempt against the King, and had urged him to "have a care" of his guards. Whalley and the commissioners went straight to the King's apartment, where they found no King, but letters directed to themselves. By these explanatory missives the parliament and nation were apprised that his majesty, apprehensive that some desperate persons had a design to assassinate him, had withdrawn himself, with intention to remain concealed until the parliament and army had come to an agreement as to the terms of peace in which they deemed it fit for him to concur. Tidings of this great event were instantly dispatched to the chief persons in authority. Amongst the rest, Whalley posted off one of his dragoons to Cromwell, who was then stationed at Putney, and at twelve o'clock of this same nightthe very crisis of Cromwell's fate as well as the King's-he announced the event to the Speaker in plain soldierlike terms in a letter from Hampton Court.

In the meantime, where was the King? Searching round the palace, tracks of horses were found at the back door of the garden. There was a way of communication from the King's apartment into the garden. That way, it was rightly concluded, the King had gone. He left the palace a little before nine, accompanied only by Will. Legg. At Ditton, Ashburnham and Berkeley were waiting for him. After a conference between the King and Ashburnham they all four started off through Oatlands Park, the King leading the way. The night was so intensely dark, that, familiar as the King was with all that country, they lost their road, went ten miles out of the way, and, instead of reaching Sutton in Hampshire, [Long Sutton?] whither a relay of horses had been sent

Wet and weary as they were, the horses were ordered out, and their journey immediately resumed. Now they began to confer whither they were going. As they had lost the opportunity of conversation in the inn, they walked down the next hill, with their horses in their hands, and as they walked "consulted what" they "were to do." After some mere chit-chat, as it would seem, the King announced his determination to "go for the Isle of Wight," but, before he did So, directed Ashburnham and Berkeley to cross over thither and confer with the new governor of that island for the parliament, Colonel Hammond, and understand from him what kind of reception he was willing to give the King. In the meantime, the King and Will. Legg were to make their way to Tichfield, where they were secure of proper treatment at a residence of Lord Southampton's, inhabited by his mo

ther.

To carry out this plan the party separated. The King reached Tichfield in the evening of the 12th November, and Ashburnham and Berkeley arrived at Lymington the same night. The weather was so bad that they were unable to cross to Yarmouth until the next morning. By ten o'clock they reached Carisbrook. The governor-a young man, nephew to Dr. Hammond, King Charles's chaplain, but son-in-law to Hampden, and extremely intimate with Cromwell-was not at home. He had just rode out towards Newport. Ashburnham and Berkeley went after him. They overtook him on the high road. Berkeley, by Ashburnham's desire, broke the subject of their commission to him. He was at first almost overwhelmed with astonishment; he grew pale and trembled "that I did really believe," says Sir John Berkeley, "he would have fallen off his horse,'

but after a little reflection he became reassured. He set before them his double duty, and would undertake no further, than that, if his majesty put himself in his power, he would do whatever could be expected from a person of honour and honesty. Of course, this should not have satisfied the King's messengers. But it did satisfy them. When, afterwards, the world exclaimed against their folly, they threw the blame on one another, and on the best judgment we can form Ashburnham was the more faulty of the two. This seems confirmed by what ensued on their return to Charles with Hammond and Basket, the governor of Cowes castle, in their company. "Oh Jack, you have undone me!" exclaimed the King. Ashburnham instantly took the blame upon himself by offering to set the King free again by the assassination of Hammond and Basket—a proposal which proves the wildness and indiscretion of his character. His majesty judged it was now too late to boggle," says Sir John Berkeley, and yielded himself to the new custody which his followers had thus arranged for him. It is of little use speculating upon possibilities, but it seems as if the King's life might have been saved and the whole current of English history altered, if, instead of sending Ashburnham and Berkeley to Hammond, Charles could have awaited the arrival of some small craft from France, or have arranged with some of the fishermen of Southampton water for a passage to the continent.

At Carisbrook the King soon began to quarrel, in a very undignified way, with Hammond, and to plot for an escape. His old servants were removed, and new ones placed about him, some of whom were spies; others, as Titus and Firebrace, proved true under all circumstances. The first endeavour to effect an escape took place in March 1648. Most of the letters now published relate to the second attempt.

Letter I. is written by the King in his ordinary hand, and is signed in his accustomed way. It is directed "For Cap: Titus," but does not seem to have been closed or folded like an ordinary letter, but merely to have been doubled up in a small compass. It might have been put into the finger of a glove or been held with ease in the

palm of the hand, so as to be passed from hand to hand without observation. The King declares his necessity to be greater than ever, and pledges himself that services done to him at this time shall have the first place in his thoughts, whenever he shall be in a condition to requite his friends and pity his enemies. Lastly," he adds, asseure every one that with me present services wipes out former falts." This was probably a letter written as a kind of authority to be shown by Titus to other persons who were to be employed in aiding the King's escape. It is undated. There is a fac-simile of this letter in Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 345.

66

Letter II. like all the remainder is in a feigned legal hand. It addresses Titus as W. and is signed J. This letter, which like the former is without a date, was written after the King's ineffectual attempt at an escape, when he was unable to pass his body between the bars. He refers Titus to the bearer, probably Firebrace, for particulars of his failure, and requests "advice concerning removing of obstructions." It had been suggested that by the action of aqua fortis and a file he might remove the bar, and then be able to let himself down.

Letter III. dated 26th April, 1648, from J. to W. denying that the King had written something about his meditated escape, which it was alleged had come to light from an intercepted letter.

Letter IV. undated. The King directs Titus to give full instructions to Osborn and Dowcett, two of the King's attendants who were in the plot, and one of whom at the least was a spy.

to

Letter V. undated. The King sends his file to Titus, and wishes him make good trials and give him good instructions; for I know not," he says, "how filing can be without much noise and time." Firebrace had suggested that the King might pass the guards at night, and go out at once that way. Titus is directed to try that way by making "this fellow of the backstairs try how he can conduct his friends in and out at that time of night without strict examination of the guards. The providing of a ship is left to Titus's care."

Letter VI. without date. Answer to suspicions entertained of some one in communication with the King. Titus

Letter VIII. undated. "I have been considering the bar of my window, and find that I must cut it in two places; for that place where I must cut it above I can hide it with the lead that ties the glass, but there is nothing that can hide the lower part; wherefore I conceive it cannot but be discovered if I leave it off when I have once begun it; and how to make but one labour of it I cannot yet conceive: but if I had a forcer I could make my way well enough, or if you could teach me how to make the fire-shovel or tongs supply that place, which I believe not impossible. I pray you to be sure of a ship."

Letter IX. undated. The difficulty of removing the bar leads the King to prefer the plan of going out through the guards, "if any one officer can be engaged in it." Titus is to state his opinion whether pro or con.

Letter X. undated. The King has but one query," whether," he writes, "I shall have time enough after I have supped and before I go to bed to remove the bar: for if I had a forcer I would make no question of it; I much doubt that my time be too scant." He also adds, "there must be terminus ad quem, as well as terminus a quo, therefore I desire to know whither you intend that I should go after I am over the water." This letter is printed by Clutterbuck (Hist. Hertfordshire, i. 345).

Letter XI. Sunday 14th May. Answer to four letters received from Titus the day before, with many others from other people. "As for our great buiness, I desire you to begin to wait for me on Monday next, and so after every night for a week together, because one night may fail and [another?] accomplish it; and it being both troublesome and dangerous to send off

word to you. It is my chamber window on which I must descend, the other being so watched that it cannot be cut, wherefore I must first to bed, so that my time of coming from my chamber may be about eleven at night. You must give me a password that I may know my friends in the dark."

Letter XII. Monday, 22nd May. Answer to three letters. "I will offer my life, if I had a chance, that the discourse concerning Con [the papal agent] and my wife is a damned lie... I desire you to assure all my friends in my name that all this is punctually true, and in particular to 457 (Lady Carlisle); and that if, as you have said, there shall be any treaty made me by the Parliament party, I would only have use of it in order to my escape. . . As you have advised, Wednesday next may be the night I shall endeavour to escape, but I desire you, if it be possible before then, to assure me that you will be ready on that night, and send me a password, which yet you have not done. I have now no more to say, but that I hope you will remember to order things so that I shall need no stop until I go to the ship."

Letter XIII. Wednesday, 24th May. "Yours of yesterday's date I have received this afternoon; which, though short, gave me much satisfaction, and to which my answer is,-By the help of fate I shall try to escape upon Sunday night next. The cause why we could not do it this night is, because the course of the guards are altered, for our men have it settled so that their turn comes but on Sunday night next."

On the night appointed Charles again made the attempt. He cut asunder and removed the bar. He opened the window and prepared to descend, when, looking downwards, he beheld a considerable number of persons assembled round the spot at which he was to alight. He looked again, observing more attentively, and found that Dowcett, who was to be his guide, was not there. He rightly concluded that his plan had been discovered. He drew back, closed the casement, and went to bed in an agony of disappointment which no eye beheld and no heart or pen can tell. Hammond wrote the next day to the House of Lords, that

he had been informed of the King's intention to escape, on the Sunday morning, by two of the soldiers who had been suborned; but, in truth, he had been warned that there was "aqua fortis gone down from London to remove that obstacle which hindered, and that the same design is to be put in execution in the next dark nights," by a letter from Cromwell, dated as long before as the 6th April. The fact seems to be, that the King was surrounded by people who played him false. Everything he did was made known to the leaders of the army and the parliament; and probably all, or nearly all, his letters were intercepted

and read.

Letter XIV. Saturday, 1 July, 1648. A month after the failure of the King's attempt, Titus was again able to get into correspondence with him. "I have newly received," the King writes, "yours of the 22nd June, for which I know not whether my astonishment or my joy were the greater; for indeed I did despair of hearing any more from you, or any other of my friends, during these damnable times, without blaming anything but my own misfortune, which makes me the more obliged to your kindness and industry for having found means to convey a letter to me.' He adds, that he will send him or his other friends' letters, if he be assured that they will come safe to him. A facsimile of this letter is given in Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 345.

Letter XV. Monday, 10 July, 1648. The King reports that Hammond the governor had been endeavouring to extract from him some information which might be used in the criminal proceedings instituted against persons implicated in his abortive attempt to escape. The King states, that "all the answer the King would give him was,-If he knew nothing he could tell him nothing, or, though he knew anything, yet he would tell him nothing; because his maxim is,-Never to clear one man to the prejudice of another, or of his own service."

This is the last of these letters. In our abstract of them we have availed ourselves of Mr. Hillier's rendering of the cipher in which some parts are written, and have in one or two places supplied omissions in his transcripts. They undoubtedly constitute a very

curious collection-one which we are delighted to find at last settled in its proper depository, the national collection of MSS. They establish, by unquestionable evidence, the facts respecting the meditated escapes from Carisbrook; they prove with whom the King was at that time in communication; they present a touching picture of the troubles attendant upon sovereignty "fallen from its high estate." The narrative of the successive steps by which the last fatal and wicked result was brought about can never again be written without receiving some additional certainty, and some few new facts, from these letters. They are a supplement to the letters of Firebrace and the narratives of Berkeley, Ashburnham, Herbert, and Cooke, and, considered apart from the narrative in which we find them, we can only rejoice that they have been placed beyond the reach of accidental destruction.

Melancholy as were the errors of King Charles, and the folly of his conduct down to and even beyond the time to which these letters relate, all feeling is forgotten from the moment he rejected the proposals of the army, save pity for his obviously approaching fate. Without the aid of such fraudulent endeavours to excite commiseration as the lines entitled Majesty in Misery, which are here reprinted with the stamp of the editor's approval, the facts of the last fifteen months of the King's life constitute one of the saddest passages in our annals,-a proof alike of the certain results of obstinate adherence to misgovernment, and of the fearful wickedness to the commission of which even well-meaning men may, under particular circumstances, be incited.

The Appendix to the present volume contains several papers relating to the mission upon which Titus was sent by Charles II. from Scotland into France, to consult Henrietta Maria upon a marriage between Charles II. and a daughter of the Marquis of Argyle, suggested, according to Clarendon, in order to amuse the Marquis. The King's instructions are here by a misprint dated in 1657 instead of 1651. The Queen's answer was

I am not uninformed of my Lord of Argyle's ability, credit, or affections, nor