is escape
from Hampton Court, and rode as fast as the horses could carry them
towards that part of Hampshire which led to the New Forest. The king
expected that his friends had provided a vessel in which he might escape
to France; but in this he was disappointed. There was no vessel ready,
and after riding for some time along the shore he resolved to go to
Titchfield, a seat belonging to the Earl of Southampton. After a long
consultation with those who attended him, he yielded to their advice,
which was, to trust to Colonel Hammond, who was governor of the Isle of
Wight for the Parliament, but who was supposed to be friendly to the
king. Whatever might be the feelings of commiseration of Colonel
Hammond towards a king so unfortunately situated, he was firm in his
duties towards his employers, and the consequence was that King Charles
found himself again a prisoner in Carisbrook Castle.

But we must now leave the king, and retrace history to the commencement
of the civil war. A short distance from the town of Lymington, which is
not far from Titchfield, where the king took shelter, but on the other
side of the Southampton Water, and south of the New Forest, to which it
adjoins, was a property called Arnwood, which belonged to a Cavalier of
the name of Beverley. It was at that time a property of considerable
value, being very extensive, and the park ornamented with valuable
timber; for it abutted on the New Forest, and might have been supposed
to have been a continuation of it. This Colonel Beverley, as we must
call him, for he rose to that rank in the king's army, was a valued
friend and companion of Prince Rupert's, and commanded several troops of
cavalry. He was ever at his side in the brilliant charges made by this
gallant prince, and at last fell in his arms at the battle of Naseby.
Colonel Beverley had married into the family of the Villiers, and the
issue of his marriage was two sons and two daughters; but his zeal and
sense of duty had induced him, at the commencement of the war, to leave
his wife and family at Arnwood, and he was fated never to meet them
again. The news of his death had such an effect upon Mrs Beverley,
already worn with anxiety on her husband's account, that a few months
afterwards she followed him to an early tomb, leaving the four children
under the charge of an elderly relative till such time as the family of
the Villiers could protect them; but, as will appear by our history,
this w