appear to have been a disbeliever. In Dr. Birch's MSS. we are told, that on one occasion the Duke of Buckingham having spoken profanely before him, the king administered to him the following reproof. "My lord," he said, "I am a great deal older than your grace, and have heard more arguments for atheism; but I have since lived long enough to see that there is nothing in them, and I hope your grace will." On another occasion, speaking of the credulous but learned Vossius, who was a free-thinker, Charles said, that "he refused to believe nothing but the bible."

AN ACCOUNT

OF

HIS MAJESTY'S ESCAPE FROM WORCESTER,

DICTATED TO MR. PEPYS BY THE KING HIMSELF.

:

NEWMARKET,

Sunday, Oct. 3rd, and Tuesday, Oct. 5th, 1680. AFTER that the battle was so absolutely lost, as to be beyond hope of recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself; and the first thought that came into my head was, that, if I could possibly, I would get to London, as soon, if not sooner, than the news of our defeat could get thither and it being near dark, I talked with some, especially with my Lord Rochester, who was then Wilmot, about their opinions, which would be the best way for me to escape, it being impossible, as I thought, to get back into Scotland. I found them mightily distracted, and their opinions different, of the possibility of getting to Scotland, but not one agreeing with mine, for going to London, saving my Lord Wilmot; and the truth is, I did not impart my design of going to London to any but my Lord Wilmot. But we had such a number of beaten men with us, of the horse, that I strove, as soon as ever it was dark, to get from them; and though I could not get them to stand by me against the enemy, I could not get rid of them, now I had a mind to it.

So we, that is, my Lord Duke of Buckingham, Lauderdale, Derby, Wilmot, Tom Blague, Duke Darcey, and several others of my servants, went along northward towards Scotland; and at last we got about sixty that were gentlemen

and officers, and slipped away out of the high road that goes to Lancastershire, and kept on the right hand, letting all the beaten men go along the great road, and ourselves not knowing very well which way to go, for it was then too late for us to get to London, on horseback, riding directly for it, nor could we do it, because there was yet many people of quality with us that I could not get rid of.

So we rode through a town short of Woolverhampton, betwixt that and Worcester, and went through, there lying a troop of the enemies there that night. We rode very quietly through the town, they having nobody to watch, nor they suspecting us no more than we did them, which I learned afterwards from a country fellow.

We went that night about twenty miles, to a place called White Ladys, hard by Tong Castle, by the advice of Mr. Giffard, where we stopped, and got some little refreshment of bread and cheese, such as we could get, it being just beginning to be day. This White Ladys was a private house that Mr. Giffard, who was a Staffordshire man, had told me belonged to honest people that lived thereabouts.*

*S. Pepys, desiring to know from Father Hodlestone what he knew touching the brotherhood of the Penderells, as to the names and qualities of each of the brothers, he answered, that he was not very perfect in it, but that, as far as he could recollect, they were thus, viz. :

1st. William, the eldest, who lived at Boscobel.

2nd. John, who lived at White Ladies, a kind of woodward there, all the brothers living in the wood, having little farms there, and labouriug for their living, in cutting down of wood, and watching the wood from being stolen having the benefit of some cow-grass to live on. Father Hodlestone farther told me, that here lived one Mr. Walker, an old gentleman, a priest, whither the poor Catholics in that neighbourhood resorted for devotion, and whom Father Hodlestone used now and then to visit, and say prayers, and do holy offices with. Upon which score it that John Penderell happened to know him in the high-way, when the said John Penderell was looking out for a hiding-place for my Lord Wilmot. This John was he, as Father Hodlestone says, that took the most pains of all the brothers.

was,

3rd. Richard, commonly called among them Trusty Richard, who lived the same kind of life with the rest.

4th. Humphrey, a miller, who has a son at this day (1680) footman to the queen, to be heard of at Somerset House.

5th. George, another brother, who was in some degree, less or more, as he remembers, employed in this service. He thinks there was a sixth brother, but of that is not certain. H.

And just as we came thither, there came in a country fellow, that told us, there were three thousand of our horse just hard by Tong Castle, upon the heath, all in disorder, under David Leslie, and some other of the general officers: upon which there were some of the people of quality that were with me, who were very earnest that I should go to him and endeavour to go into Scotland; which I thought was absolutely impossible, knowing very well that the country would all rise upon us, and that men who had deserted me when they were in good order, would never stand to me when they have been beaten.

This made me take the resolution of putting myself into a disguise, and endeavouring to get a-foot to London, in a country fellow's habit, with a pair of ordinary grey cloth breeches, a leathern doublet, and a green jerkin, which I took in the house of White Ladys. I also cut my hair very short, and flung my clothes into a privy-house, that nobody might see that anybody had been stripping themselves.* I acquainting none with my resolution of going to London but my Lord Wilmot, they all desiring me not to acquaint them with what I intended to do, because they knew not what they

* There were six brothers of the Penderells, who all of them knew the secret; and (as I have since learned from one of them) the man in whose house I changed my clothes came to one of them about two days after, and asking him where I was, told him that they might get 1,000l. if they would tell, because there was that sum laid upon my head. But this Penderell was so honest, that though he at that time knew where I was, he bade him have a care of what he did; for, that I being gone out of all reach, if they should now discover I had ever been there, they would get nothing but hanging for their pains. I would not change my clothes at any of the Penderell's houses, because I meant to make further use of them, and they might be suspected; but rather chose to do it in a house where they were not Papists, I neither knowing them, nor, to this day, what the man was at whose house I did it. But the Penderells have since endeavoured to mitigate the business of their being tempted by their neighbour to discover me; but one of them did certainly declare it to me at that time. K.

Concerning one Yates, that married a sister of one of the Penderells, Father Hodlestone says, he has heard, that the old coarse shirt which the king had on did belong to him; and consequently that the king did shift himself at his house; but believes that the rest of the king's clothes were William Penderell's, he being a tall man, and the breeches the king had on being very long at the knees. H.