Roscarrock, Mr. Marmaduke Darcy, Mr. Richard Lane, Mr. William Armorer (since knighted), Mr. Hugh May, Mr. Charles Giffard, Mr. Peter Street, and some others, in all about sixty horse. At a house about a mile beyond Sturbridge, his majesty drank, and ate a crust of bread, the house affording no better provision; and as his majesty rode on, he discoursed with Colonel Roscarrock touching Boscobel House, and the means of security which the Earl of Derby and he found at that place. However, Mr. Giffard humbly proposed to carry his majesty first to White Ladies (another seat of the Giffards), lying but half a mile beyond Boscobel, where he might repose himself for a while, and then take such farther resolution as his majesty and council should think fit. This house is distant about twenty-six miles from Worcester, and still retains the ancient name of White Ladies, from its having formerly been a monastery of Cistercian nuns, whose habit was of that colour. . His majesty and his retinue (being safely conducted thither by Mr. Giffard) alighted, now, as they hoped, out of danger of any present surprise by pursuits; George Penderel (who was a servant in the house) opened the doors; and after his majesty and the lords were entered the house, his majesty's horse was brought into the hall, and by this time it was about break of day on Thursday morning. Here every one was in a sad consult how to escape the fury of blood-thirsty enemies; but the greatest solicitude was to save the king, who was both hungry and tired with this long and hasty march. Mr. Giffard presently sent for Richard Penderel, who lived near hand at Hobbal Grange; and Col. Roscarrock caused Bartholomew Martin, a boy in the house, to be sent to Boscobel for William Penderel; meantime Mistress Giffard brought his majesty some sack and biscuit; for "the king, and all the people that were with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there."* Richard came first, and was immediately sent back to bring a suit of his clothes for the king; and by that time he arrived with them, William came, and both were brought into the parlour to the Earl of Derby, who * 2 Sam. xvi. 14. immediately carried them into an inner parlour (where the king was), and told William Penderel, "This is the king," pointing to his majesty; "thou must have a care of him, and preserve him as thou didst me." And Mr. Giffard did also much conjure Richard to have a special care of his charge; to which commands the two brothers yielded ready obedience. Whilst Richard and William were thus sent for, his majesty had been advised to rub his hands on the back of the chimney, and with them his face, for a disguise, and some person had disorderly cut off his hair. His majesty having put off his garter, blue riband, George of diamonds, buff-coat, and other princely ornaments, committed his watch to the custody of the Lord Wilmot, and his George to Col. Blague, and distributed the gold he had in his pocket among his servants, and then put on a noggen coarse shirt, which was borrowed of Edward Martin, who lived in the house, and Richard Penderel's green suit and leather doublet, but had not time to be so disguised as he was afterwards, for both William and Richard Penderel did advertise the company to make haste away, in regard there was a troop of rebels commanded by Colonel Ashenhurst, quartered at Cotsal, but three miles distant, some of which troop came to the house within half an hour after the dissolution of the royal troop. "Thus David and his men departed out of Keilah, and went withersoever they could go.' Richard Penderel conducted the king out at a back-door, unknown to most of the company (except some of the lords and Col. Roscarrock, who, with sad hearts, but hearty prayers, took leave of him), and carried him into an adjacent wood belonging to Boscobel, called Spring Coppice, about half a mile from White Ladies (where "he abode, as David did in the wilderness of Ziph, in a wood"+), whilst William, Humphrey, and George were scouting abroad to bring what news they could learn to his majesty in the coppice, as occasion required. His majesty being thus, as they hoped, in a way of security, the duke, Earl of Derby, Earl of Lauderdale, Lord Talbot, and the rest (having Mr. Giffard for their guide, and being then not above forty horse, of which number his majesty's pad-nag was one, ridden by Mr. Richard Lane, one of the grooms of the bed-chamber), marched from White Ladies * 1 Sam. xxiii. 13. + Ibid. 15. northwards by the way of Newport, in hope to overtake or meet General Lesley with the main body of Scotch horse. As soon as they were got into the road, the Lord Leviston (who commanded his majesty's life-guard) overtook them, pursued by a party of rebels under the command of Colonel Blundel: the lords with their followers faced about, fought, and repelled them; but when they came a little beyond Newport, some of Colonel Lilburn's men met them in the front, other rebels, from Worcester, pursued in the rear; themselves and horses being sufficiently tired, the Earl of Derby, Earl of Lauderdale, Mr. Charles Giffard, and some others, were taken and carried prisoners, first to Whitchurch, and from thence to an inn in Bunbury, in Cheshire, where Mr. Giffard found means to make an escape; but the noble Earl of Derby was thence conveyed to Westchester, and there tried by a pretended court-martial, held the 1st of October, 1651, by virtue of a commission from Cromwell, grounded on an execrable rump-act, of the 12th of August, then last past, the very title whereof cannot be mentioned without horror; but it pretended most traitorously to prohibit correspondence with Charles Stuart (their lawful sovereign), under penalty of high treason, loss of life and estate, -Prodigious rebels! In this Black Tribunal there sat, as Judges, these persons, and under these titles: Colonel Humphrey Mackworth, president Major-General Mitton. Colonel Robert Duckenfield. Colonel Henry Bradshaw. Colonel George Twisleton. Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Birkenhead. Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Finch. Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Newton. Captain James Stepford. Captain Samuel Smith. Captain John Downes. Captain Vincent Corbet. Captain John Delves. Captain Thomas Portington. Captain Edward Alcock. Captain Ralph Pownall. Captain Richard Grantham. Captain Edward Stelfax. THEIR CRUEL SENTENCE. "Resolved by the Court upon the question: That James, Earl of Derby, is guilty of the breach of the act of the 12th of August, 1651, last past, intituled, 'An Act prohibiting Correspondence with Charles Stuart or his Party,' and so of high treason against the commonwealth of England, and is therefore worthy of death. "Resolved by the Court: That the said James, Earl of Derby, is a traitor to the commonwealth of England, and an abetter, encourager, and assister of the declared traitors and enemies thereof, and shall be put to death by severing his head from his body, at the market-place in the town of Bolton, in Lancashire, upon Wednesday, the 15th day of this instant October, about the hour of one of the clock the same day.” This was the authority, and some of these the persons, that so barbarously, and contrary to the law of nations, condemned this noble earl to death, notwithstanding his just plea, "That he had quarter for life given him by one Captain Edge, who took him prisoner." But this could not obtain justice, nor any intercession, mercy; so that on the 15th of the said October he was accordingly beheaded at Bolton, in a most barbarous and inhuman manner. * The Earl of Lauderdale, with several others, were carried prisoners to the Tower, and afterwards to Windsor Castle, where they continued divers years. Whilst the rebels were plundering those noble persons, the duke, with the Lord Leviston, Colonel Blague, Mr. Marmaduke Darcy, and Mr. Hugh May, forsook the road first, and soon after their horses, and betook themselves to a by-way, and got into Bloore Park, near Cheswardine, about five miles from Newport, where they received some refreshment at a little obscure house of Mr. George Barlow's, and afterwards met with two honest labourers, in an adjoining wood, to whom they communicated the exigent and distress which the fortune of war had reduced them to; and finding them like to prove faithful, the duke thought fit to imitate his royal master, delivered his George (which was given him by the Queen of * See the proceedings against him at large, with his prayers before his death, and his speech and courageous deportment on the scaffold, in England's Black Tribunal, 5th edit. p. 156, &c. England) to Mr. May (who preserved it through all difficulties, and afterwards restored it to his grace in Holland), and changed habit with one of the workmen; and in this disguise, by the assistance of Mr. Barlow and his wife, was, after some days, conveyed by one Nich. Matthews, a carpenter, to the house of Mr. Hawley, a hearty cavalier, at Bilstrop, in Nottinghamshire, from thence to the Lady Villiars's house at Booksby, in Leicestershire; and after many hardships and encounters, his grace got secure to London, and from thence to his majesty in France. At the same time the Lord Leviston, Colonel Blague, Mr. Darcy, and Mr. May, all quitted their horses, disguised themselves, and severally shifted for themselves, and some of them, through various dangers and sufferings, contrived their escapes; in particular, Mr. May was forced to lie twenty-one days in a hay-mow belonging to one John Bold, an honest husbandman, who lived at Soudley: Bold having all that time rebel soldiers quartered in his house, yet failed not to give a constant relief to his more welcome guest; and when the coast was clear of soldiers, Mr. May came to London on foot in his disguise. The Lord Talbot (seeing no hope of rallying) hasted towards his father's house at Longford, near Newport; where being arrived, he conveyed his horse into a neighbouring barn, but was immediately pursued by the rebels, who found the horse saddled, and by that concluded my lord not to be far off, so that they searched Longford House narrowly, and some of them continued in it four or five days, du ing all which time my lord was in a close place in one of the out-houses, almost stifled for want of air, and had perished for want of food, had he not been once relieved in the dead of the night, and with much difficulty, by a trusty servant; yet his lordship thought it a great providence, even by these hardships, to escape the fury of such enemies, who sought the destruction of the nobility, as well as of their king. In this interim the valiant Earl of Cleveland (who, being above sixty years of age, had marched twenty-one days together upon a trotting horse), had also made his escape from Worcester, when all the fighting work was over, and was got to Woodcot, in Shropshire, whither he was pursued, and taken at or near Mistress Broughton's house, from whence he was |