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THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

SIR,

AMONG the many addresses which every day offers your sacred majesty, this humbly hopes your particular gracious acceptance, since it has no other ambition than faithfully to represent to your majesty, and, by your royal permission, to all the world, the history of those miraculous providences that preserved you in the battle of Worcester, concealed you in the wilderness at Boscobel, and led you on your way towards a land where you might safely expect the returning favours of Heaven, which now, after so long a trial, has graciously heard our prayers, and abundantly crowned your patience.

And, as in the conduct of a great part of this greatest affair, it pleased God (the more to endear his mercies) to make choice of many very little, though fit, instruments; so has my weakness, by this happy precedent, been encouraged to hope if not unsuitable for me to relate, what the wisest king thought proper for them to act; wherein yet I humbly beg your majesty's pardon, being conscious to myself of my utter incapacity to express, either your unparalleled valour in the day of contending, or (which is a virtue far less usual for kings) your strong and even mind in the time, of your sufferings.

From which sublime endowments of your most heroic majesty, I derive these comforts to myself, that whoever undertakes to reach at your perfections, must fall short as well as I, though not so much. And while I depend on your royal clemency more than others, I am more obliged to be

Your majesty's most loyal subject,

And most humble servant,

THO. BLOUNT.

TO THE READER.

BEHOLD, I present you with an history of wonders; wonders so great, that, as no former age can parallel, succeeding times will scarce believe them.

Expect here to read the highest tyranny and rebellion that was ever acted by subjects, and the greatest hardships and persecutions that ever were suffered by a king; yet did his patience exceed his sorrows, and his virtue became at last victorious.

Some particulars, I confess, are so superlatively extraordinary, that I easily should fear they would scarce gain belief, even from my modern reader, had I not this strong argument to secure me, that no ingenuous person will think me so frontless, as knowingly to write an untruth in an history where his sacred majesty (my dread sovereign, and the best of kings) bears the principal part, and most of the other persons concerned in the same action (except the Earl of Derby, Lord Wilmot, and Colonel Blague) still alive, ready to pour out shame and confusion on so impudent a forgery.

But I am so far from that foul crime of publishing what's false, tha I can safely say I know not one line unauthentic; such has been my care to be sure of the truth, that I have diligently collected the particulars from most of their mouths, who were the very actors themselves in this scene of miracles.

To every individual person (as far as my industry could arrive to know) I have given the due of his merit, be it for valour, fidelity, or whatever other quality that any way had the honour to relate to his majesty's service.

In this later edition, I have added some particulars which came to my knowledge since the first publication; and have observed that, in this persecution, much of his majesty's actions and sufferings have run parallel with those of King David.

And though the whole complex may want elegance and politeness of style (which the nature of such relations does not properly challenge), yet it cannot want truth, the chief ingredient for such undertakings; in which assurance I am not afraid to venture myself in your hands.

Read on, and wonder!

BOSCOBEL;

OR,

THE HISTORY OF KING CHARLES II.'s

MOST MIRACULOUS PRESERVATION AFTER THE BATTLE OF

WORCESTER.

PART I.

Ir was in June, in the year 1650, that Charles the Second, undoubted heir of Charles the First, of glorious memory, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland (after his royal father had been barbarously murdered, and himself banished his own dominions, by his own rebellious subjects), took shipping at Scheveling, in Holland, and having escaped great dangers at sea, arrived soon after at Spey, in the north of Scotland.

On the 1st of January following, his majesty was crowned at Scoon, and an army raised in that kingdom to invade this, in hope to recover his regalities here, then most unjustly detained from him by some members of the Long Parliament, and Oliver Cromwell their general, who soon after most traitorously assumed the title of Protector of the new-minted commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Of this royal Scotch army the general officers were these: Lieutenant-Gen. David Leslie, Lieutenant-Gen. Middleton (who was since created Earl of Middleton, Lord Clarmont and Fettercairn), Major-Gen. Massey, Major-Gen. Montgomery, Major-Gen. Daliel, and Major-Gen. Vandrose, a Dutchman.

The 1st of August, 1651, his majesty with his army began his march into England; and on the 5th of the same month, at his royal camp at Woodhouse, near the border, published his gracious declaration of general pardon and oblivion to all his loving subjects of the kingdom of England and dominion of Wales, that would desist from assisting the usurped authority of the pretended commonwealth of England, and return

to the obedience they owed to their lawful king, and to the ancient happy government of the kingdom, except only Oliver Cromwell, Henry Ireton, John Bradshaw, John Cook (pretended solicitor), and all others who did actually sit and vote in the murder of his royal father.

And lastly did declare, that the service being done, the Scotch army should quietly retire, that so all armies might be disbanded, and a lasting peace settled with religion and righteousness.

His majesty, after the publication of this gracious offer, marched his army into Lancashire, where he received some considerable supplies from the Earl of Derby (that loyal subject), and at Warrington Bridge met with the first opposition made by the rebels in England, but his presence soon put them to flight.

In this interim his majesty had sent a copy of his declaration, inclosed in a gracious letter to Thomas Andrews, then lord mayor (who had been one of his late majesty's judges), and the aldermen of the city of London, which, by order of the rump-rebels, then sitting at Westminster, was (on the 26th of August) publicly burnt at the old Exchange by the hangman, and their own declaration proclaimed there and at Westminster, with beat of drum and sound of trumpet; by which his sacred majesty (to whom they could afford no better title than Charles Stuart), his abetters, agents, and complices, were declared traitors, rebels, and public enemies. Impudence and treason beyond example!

After a tedious march of near three hundred miles, his majesty, with his army, on the 22nd of August, possessed himself of Worcester, after some small opposition made by the rebels there, commanded by Colonel John James. And at his entrance, the mayor of that city carried the sword before his majesty, who had left the Earl of Derby in Lancashire, as well to settle that and the adjacent countries in a posture of defence against Cromwell and his confederates, as to raise some auxiliary forces to recruit his majesty's army, in case the success of a battle should not prove so happy as all good men desired.

But (such was Heaven's decree) on the 25th of August, the earl's new-raised forces, being overpowered, were totally de