OCR Text |
Show "V A Fugitive King in His Own Words Describes His Own Flight By IRVIN S. COBB. atannaaiimm tmamtmtmms 'After the battle was so absolutely account is more than an lost aa to be beyond hope of reeov-- ' Todays offering in this series of Tales ofa the as told by himself Chaxlee II, of escape tale is the event of notable in fugitive's a It royai beet wp.y of I the history. to hlnk erj. began born in 1630, died In lb85, king of Great Britain and Ireland rf saving myeelf; and the first It is not wall, even after the lapse of nearly three centuries, that one should meddle with the personal was head came Into my thought that reminiscences of a famous monarch. So the text is reproduced here practically in its original form. There I would if could I get possibly. that, is no valid reason dor d ou bung its authenticity. It first was published in 17b6, having been extracted from amateur to London as aoon as, it not sooner historian, a fuller narrative lifted from the voluminous literary storehouse of that marvelous could of our news de'feat than, the Samuel Pepys, as lound in Magdalen college, Cambridge, lor. after the deaths of both the king and Pepys. belief that it the scholars in near Charless in handwriting, agTe dark, Even though "the manuscript was not actually thither; and, it being I talked with some, is an accurate ropy of bis own memoirs of the mos t thrilling occurrence in his spectacular life on They especially with the base their judgment not only on the minuteness of d atari end the graphic descriptions, but more t, Iord Rochetr. afterward LoFd characteristic of C harlea in his lighter moments. about their opinions which fact that the story has a liveliness forces a. then son, the Oliver of Cromwell, of us father by the army After the overthrow of the would be the best way for me to fled out of England. Charles I. as all men know, was captured and died on the seal of tall sixteen, youth escape, it being impossible, as I fold a scaffold erected In eight of the palace where he had reigned. The son reached Paris, where he thought, to get back into Scotland found an asylum. It was from France, four years later, that he ventured back to head a revolt against I found them mightily distracted, and Cromwell in an effort to regain the throne To the claimant that campaign resulted most disastrously. For their opinions different, of the the second time in his young life, he became a hunts d refugee It is with what happened to him following the collapse of his cause that his own story deals of getting to Scotland but standard. But He was a Stuart, therefore a Scot. And to Scotland he returned in 16o0 to raise his He not one agreeing with mine for goswore to he did certain things eminently typical of his uncertain nature took field the before he to Lord London, saving Wilmot, ing which secretly he had no intention of keeping. lie signed a declaration testifying to his father s and the truth is I did not Impart ay pledges blood guilt, to his mothers Idolatry and to his proiessea abhorrence of the church in jwlueh he had been design of going to London to an but clanoned his allegiance to Presbyterianism a faith which privately he despised. So the Scots reared WTlroot But we had suctT a numcrowned him. and, while they were doing this, dour o Id Cromwell waa coming up to lick an incongruous ber of beaten men with us that I mixture of discontented English Royalists and rebellious Scotch Covenanters at Dunbar. In the following summer Charles showed himself in his true colors, that is. if we concede that any strove, aa aoon as ever it was dark, of his colors ever were true ones. He shook off the Presbyterian influence which had served him as a to get from them. and. though I At Carlisle he had himself cloak in his extremity, and. at the head of 10,000 followers, marched south could not get them to stand bv we In Lancastershire by recruits under the Eart of Derby and. with tb.nufr worn-owas joined king, proclaimed the could I not enemy, get against Here ocmore or lesu disheartened men in his command, entered the old English city of Worcester rid of them now I had a mind to it He fought bravely cowardice was one of the So we rode through a town short curred the decisive engagement which ruined his hopes. of Wolverhampton, betwixt that andj few vices that he escaped. In person he led a gallant but unsuccessful cavalry charge against the victori- Worcester, and went through, a ous Ttoundheads. though a troop of my enemies were The battle, for his ride, became a retreat, ail d the .retreat became a jrout. He ran away accompa-niedb- y .lying there at night. We rode aryi-quietly and gentlemen ran away with a price on his head and no place where he might a ha-i through the town, thev reat thsaforMaid ing nobody to watch, non vthay. ue faueu fortunes that our narrative today picks him up. In hi own line pecting us no more than we did them which I learned afterward from a we see him disguised In the shabby garments of a yokel; hastening afoot from one spot to another: possessed countrv fellow one inclination after another; seeking temporary relief and shelter at the hands of zealous but a humhimself to 'We went that night about twentr1 by eympathizars; living on bread and cheese; sleeping out in the ram. trusting miles to- -a place called Whtfw Ladv hiss to his enemies, fording a brawling river; fleethat when might not guide betray ble knowing guide hard by Tong castle, bv the adice a s with the packs of military huntsmen; crouching In Mr Olffard, where we stopped and ing from' suspicious countrymen; playing length retreating his weary way to the neighmuddy ditches and squatting behind dripping hedgerows; at with got some little refreshment of hrad a fellow refugee, hiding through one ageand cheese such as we could get be-- 1 borhood of Worcester, where his pursuers were thickest, and, This long day in the bushy top of an oak tree, and from its coverts peeping out to watch the troopers who !ng Just beginning to be da Charles 's Oak it was called White Ladv s was a priate hnu ranged the woodland beneath him seeking to get some trace of him. King that Mr Giffard, who wairarStaff ud-foreverafter shire man. had told me belonged to line he himself s et down. Between those lines we catch a feeling of wg rMuj jjj honest people who IP ed thereabouts plan the unfailing courage, the quick wit, the high spirits that sustained him until finally he struck on theacross And Just as we came thither th came in a countrv fellow' that told which, after further hardships and further dangers, carried him once more to his old place of refuge us there were three thousand of our the channel. horse Just hard bv Tong castle upon the heath, ail in disorder, upon which that that was there the better to see who the wood where I was this contm-camthere were some of the people of outhous that nobodv might e thsm-heafter us and whether thev mulej uting to mv safetv tjualitv that were with me who wer anvhodv had !en stripping The truth is mi mind changed as and any search after the runaway . ery earnest that I should go to them I I took immediately saw a tron rf horse I lav in the wood end i reoled of Ae aon a I was disguised and endeavor to go into Scotian 1 whose coming by which I eoncehed to he aprther wai f f makirc nn escape, which I thought was absolutely .im- ttith m a country fellow the same troop that beat our three which was to get over the Severn possible, knowing verv well that the name wan Richard Penderell, towhim and so to get 'ther to but it gd not horse into Walt country would all rise up upon us and Mr Oifrard thad undertakenman i He thousand hut of fli Swansea or sum other of the sea like a troop of the arm an honest to that men who had deserted me while Lnevv had cominetce it that fellow for before dd truns the chose militia, thev were in good order would neer v as a Roman Catholic and with France t the end might crov all 3ke a oidser stand to mo when they had oen to truth them because I knew thevI nor look atwood wa as being a to I Ftance all that oer In da with staced this that had hiding holes for priest beaten drink, and b great reel wav that I thought nope would This made me take the resolution thought I might make uRe of in case out meat orrained all the time which pect my taking fortune it of putting rmseif into a disguise and of need .o thi r t'nt .i soon as It was I believe iron hindered them a ALLEY BY THE MILL. endeavoring to get afoot to London Kichar1 Per derell and I took orch for di-I was no sooner gone (being he comme into the woodle fo in a cruntrv fellow s habit, wearing on few towards the our And n men Journei that thin and 'gltt pair of odinarv grav cloth breech's next morning after the battle Hut as we v ere going in the enouch bat Severn a lexthem doublet and a green lerMn then broad dav) out of the house one thing is remarkable I we came Once up b a mill where hae poken night countrv 'ellnw than, being those with whom took in the house of White with th vhich i e ,i1p o n n Vkmc and the hen d In a great wood. I sat nrvself at the did mv that it rimed hrtl er l,advs I also cut mv hair n countrv fellow deiffd me not to an with them all the dav but nnh short and flung on clothes into an edge of the wood near the highwa ,'Jh v L:va3',TA,-I uw t, I wf8 gt Wil-mo- ; I sorely-frightene- -- He 1 1 -- 1 T I swer if anbod should ask me any questions because I hal net the de- scent of the eountrv Juat aa we came to the mill we could see the miller sitting at th mill door he being m white clothes and It being a verv dark night He t.r n called out Who goes there which Richard Pender!! anwrd or om 'Neighbors going home suchlike word Whereuoon the mi!!.- cried out If vou be neighbors lpn or I will knock vou down which believing there was companv in the house the fellow bade me follow him close and he ran to a git that went up a dirtv lane up a hill and, as he was opening the gate th miller cried out Rogues rogu Thereupon some men Icame out rf rh beloved vere mill after u whi'h o we fell both soldiers of us up the lane as long a we cmlil and verv dirrun t being ver tv till at l?st I bide him leap a hedre and He still to hear if any- - dp or For fourteen years Suwane had worn a gold cheese cloth turban and n ktmona made eut of an old portiere, from early morning until late at night, in th Imitation Arabian tnt he called office There was a sign outside that imitation Arabian tent which read reader, clairvovant, crystal " phrenologist, by appointment only The sign wa prettv nearly undeciphTh salt air of the beach erable and the damp of fog rolling in from the ocean had about erased it Besides, it was quite possible to see Su All wane without an appointment that the passers-b- v on the boardwalk cf Ocean Point beach had to do was and to tenter a little draped tent-flaeit in the stuffy overfumfshed anteroom until Suwanee, in his cheese cloth turban, peered between the portieres. Lets have our fortunes told," would erv a group of merrymakers ambling Usually Suwanee, along the bea h seated in his little back room couldhear the voung exuberant and indlcate as much by reaching over for tne yellow cheese cloth turban and putting it on his gray head a little tiredly. For fourteen years Suwanee had sometime tough, ben reading the toilwom of gnarled, calloused,who came palms to Ocean the merrymakers beach point Tired girls with pains In the calves of their legs from dishwashing and pot slinging and waiting table and making beds and trundling chtldren sought Ruwane out. in droves, for the solace of what be might have to tell them Seekers after the of their futures the present Hungry scape from "A hearts for brighter futures yearning all dreamers Xiisiliusioned Hopes brought and laid befbre th weazened old eyes of Suwanee v there in hia cheese cloth wrapper doling out to therrrThe halm of faFtlrTtrThe future. at 60 cents a reading An old Incandescent bulb answered V as a crvstal ball and for th phrerWH- ogv part Suwanee had a little wooden mallet, one of th kind thev give awav a souvenirs at cabaret shows, with which he pounded the disillusioned and disappointed but hopeful skulls of his clients In his wav Suwanee might well be entitled to the glow of the humanitarian Tired servant girla left his tent with their glased eves suddenly luminous with having peered into a future that waa rosy. Men with drooping shoulders walked out erect Shy young girla cam out with a swing to them of walking on th rim of th world Within that shabby tent, at cents per Interview, Romance lifted l go head Hop sprang eternal in the his 9 human breast. Beauty peered into lives as sodden as old dsh-rag- s And at 50 cents an interview, day Jn and dav out, week In and week out, year in and year out fourteen of them, Ruwane. who was gradually, under the cheese cloth kimona. becoming at I weazened and a gnarled as a tree, sst in the dead air of his littl tent and peered into calloused palms. It did not matter much that outside roared and Ruwane s tent there plunged and boiled and sang and smiled the bluest ocean in th world, or that. the sun that beat on that I tent waa benign enough to call visitors from all parts of the country to bak In it. It did not matter to Ruwane who sat in his tent like Some mottled old toad on its stool, that outside his and laughflap streamed holiday spirit ter of pleasure seekers and ovousns of sunklaeed youth Far aftr dav' Fuwanee. with his lurterless old eyes called onV -- Wlio-go- ea there bodv followed us which we dl1 "nd said that for his pari it was so danhe gerous a thing to harbor anvbodv that continued hing down upon bwould notv'entur ground about half an hour when was known that we come his neck for anv man unless it ware nohodv continued hearing u to the village upon th our wav the king himself rpon which Rich Severn where th fellow told me ard Penderell verv lud'screetlv and there was an honest gentleman one without m leave told him that it Mr Woolf that lived in that town was i 1'pon which Mr Woolfe he should, he vary ready to. where safety, might be with great lor venture ail h had m the world to aid for that be had hMing-hole- s I "But in Penderell came and told me. not till Richard would go priests a At which I Httle of hi mind whether me what he had done i knew a so a was little troubled, but then ther he would receive dangerous in was no remedy, the day being lust suet as me anda thereforebv staved a great coming on. and I must either venture hedge th field under tree commanding him not to av if that or run some greater danger house by a Po I came into th I but r nh to ak Mr Woolfe wa whether he would receive an KngIKh back wav where f found Mr Woolfe, qualitv to hide an old gentleman, who told mem that gentleman a person of we could travel he waa very sorry to see there, hbn the next dav till I not gi but because there were two companies cf for bv durt night Again th militia foot at thAt time in rmi bv night OVFR THE RIVER. in the town and keeping a guard at countrv fel"Mr Woolfe when.th th ferrv to examine everybody that ne had was came that wav in expectation of thit low told him it from the battle of Worcester catching some that might be making gO liW ftlg m ::: FANNIE HURST i to i hare-hound- fr hut wt j e serum nf T ut, e. WA.V bam and there he behind his oorn m and hsv after hemad given us some fold mai that was ready, we, without making anv bustle in ths went and lav ip the barn all hru the next ia and towards evening Ms son who had been prisoner at Phrewburv, an honest man, was and ram home to his fathers house And as soon as ever it began to he a little darkish Mr Woolf aod son brought ua mat into th hi barn, and then w discoursed with them whether vve might safely ovr the Severn into Wales, which thev advised me b no means to adventure upon tTpon this I took th resolution of going that night the very same wav hack again to Penderell's home where knew I should hear some news of what was become of Lord Wilmot, and resolved again upon going for 1indon "So w set nut aa soon as It waa dark but we came bv the mill again ifiiad to. be questioned a had-uia second" time there and therefore t aked Richard Penderell whether he could wim or no. and how deep the icurw-rive- r river was. he told-- m it not easv to be passed in aD So I told him that the river being hut a little on I would undertake to help him over Upon which wi went over some weeds by the riverside and I entering th river first to see whether I could myself go over since I knew how to swrUrr, found thadt was but a Httle my middde. and thereupon, taking Richard Penderell bv the hand, X helped him over SEEING, BUT NOT SEEN, "This being done, we went our way toon of Penderells brothers who had been guide to my Lord Wilmot and believed might bv that time be coming back again, for Wilmot intended to go to London upon his own horse. When I came to bia house I inquired wher my Lord Wilmot was it being now toward morning and having traveled these two on foot Penderell's brother nights told --me that he- - had oonduc4d-hito a very honest gentlemans house not far from Wolverhampton. I asked him what news He told me that ther wss one Major Careless In the house whom I knew, he having been a major In our army. I sent for him into the room where I was and consulted with him what we should do the next day. He told me that it would be verv dangerous for me either to stay In that house or to a go into the woods thrre being great wood hard by Bocobel; that how on to pass way he knew but the next dav. and that waa to get gt u r- their escape, and that he durat not put me into the hiding-hol- e Cf his hr use anyof because they had been discovered and consequently, if ?uiv search should he made, the searchers vould certain repairI to these holes, and that therefor had n cl jpther WORLDS HIGHEST Author of Lummox, Humoresque." T SHORT Copyright, lMf, by tbt McClure Newspaper Syndicate, STORY yf CentiBoed Tear PAID WRITER 3 e, stomach And her neat black bombasine dress making her hot and uncomfortable in the stuffiness of th tnt, the stuffiness under which guwane had managed to survive for year after year, the breathless, tired, stale old Interior, full of th dead dreams and the dead hopes and the dead youth of peopl who yearned for surcease from reality, There she sat in th bombazine dress, the good widow, with her rotund face a little wistful, as if sniffing of the odor of mystery that permeaged the tent, and her piece tied in the corner of handkerchief, which she spun around her forefinger as she waited Th good widow It mad Suwanee chuckle a little as he fitted on his turban, the memory of her as she had so cftn leaned In her polka-dcap. out of her littl window to hand him molasses cookies The tired, patient hand of the good widow It lay in Suwanee 8 almost with a little cling to It Line in it somehow dear lines, because were that thev were so full of the burden of Th hand of th good willingness widow, to Suwanee who had held hundreds, Indeed thousands of just such tired old hands, was somehow a hand with a Httle burr-lik- e quality. The usual patter of the tent of mystery. Suwanee could have recited it backwards, upside down, topsy turvy. A long journey; a dark man; a jealous friend, a trip aero the ocen; an unexpected Inheritance, and then th good widow, with the corner of her handkerchief with the piece, was gone, and peering out of his anteroom Suwanee summoned in ths next and the next and the next. And then one night, to the creaking of th pump handle, the good widow leaned out and handed him a molasses cookie, and when ah said g'td evecap on her frizzed ning, the polka-do- t gray hair did a little Jerk that brought it dfrwn over on ear "Toure she said, "aint you' fo that Ruwanee himself, secure in his Improvisation, leaped forward with surprise How do you know T knew right off, first tiros," she ' Tou re Hk said your picture" "What picture" "Why "our picture on th outside of vour tent ' Yes. but 1 have on my turban and gown there." "Turban and gown nothing. It 4 vour yea I knew you right off. Even, before 1 come to have my fortune told Sav it was punk, what you told me" "Whv? Dark m an In my Ufa. Trip across Look at my hair Orsv as the ocean I have a fine chance of having jours In mv life, now, havn t man dark I When he comes, he U be gray " grav s you "What else did I t2! you Nothin much What do you bet that I m better at fortunes than I see a Give me your hand vou? woman in our Ufe. on a truck farm that in on a paving basis And T see you there, too. In overall. Instead of a yellow cotton kimona, and a eombrero hat on your head of a yellow cotton turban tntad What do you see? "I see It, too." aak! Suwanee hot withdrawing his palm - hr nt vine-traili- p v fixed on the inrand4nt peering into the palm cracking softly on the dieappointment-- a hing skul.s sat In his tnt, and outside the golden days marched on and on and on Except evenings, after th electric lighted beach had died down and the last laugh had trailed off and, the handstand had bellowed its last brass not Then Suwanee. In that hour he went to bed on a pallet in the airless anteroom, ventured out muh hie kimona on for warmth gainst the bit of the night air, and his turlan on for far a pd-stan might ioth iUusion f hla mvsterr Indeed, those night walks of Suwanee on the g beach sometimes washed in moonlight -- or stsr.irht or immersed in th purple of darkness were full of Illusion The ma estic, figure of him swathed In the alienee of the ocean front. qrder moonlight, mysterious undr lax.ight a littl aweful, a little boding a little omniscient, talking along the beax h It waa only when nuwanee turned g r sand-shinin- d m'tc inward from the bean toward the little faim lands and truck gardens that ran ba k toward the oily that he dared to remove the turban for the flow of oo air through hair, or dared lift his fat brazen! to the night skv, r remove the kimona that flopped so bctmn hla knees and tarrv Jt like t coat aero his arm. There was one little house set in a truck garden w lie re Suwanee, under cover of darknr dared to atop for a drink of water frem a pump in th s4de vard Ther were no widow li ed there who had dogs and s leave to rter at w'l g1n him th squawking of th pump handle as Suwanee drew off is drink aroused the good widow who t!,rut out her head, a grirxVd one In cur! papers rather nut land tMy surmounted bv a polka dot nlghiap. to swap the wt time of evening with Miwan devoid of his turban And kimona, was Just a tired old man pumping for a dnnk Sometime they swapped the time of day, or rather time of evening som-tlrr- e Some-time- him two Once the good widow ga that i'd amund on moi&ases cookie Inna plat as she tandd them out to him from the window, sometimes-thev stood there talKmg tn the to a distant deg or two ring ba , loudy, little uthiwi4 the confabs of the widow and Buwanee were rather quiet affairs just, How da you do. and ' Fine evening," and. Have another cup of it it draws up cooler if you draw longer or There s a fog nf th wean tonight And then sometimes Suwanee just pumjed end drank his gulp and th Rood widow slept on and oot even the dogs bavd to the sound of voices and wiping his mouth with the buwane Jack of hia hand, trudged homeward toward the ha h again and at the -and put on hi ktmona and turban and lived up to the Illusion of th sorcerer Aid the matt of rmterv one dav peering out liks th sparkled old toad on his stool huwane beheld th good widow sitting there in his anteroom with her good natured locking freckled hands folded on her a gray-haire- d he-m- YOUNQ AMERICA, Little Mabd cam home from nchocl with a reoort which showed that she waa exceliecit In all her studies but that he waa very poor in deportment. Her mthr quizsed her t find cut At little Mahel what was wror blurted out "All 1 did waa to etwnd on my bead vl'h mr against tne I L to prmr I could d K," Ttr'U veur d Bentiera !f ft |