ess, and upon whose acquaintance with the accidents, local or
personal, that surrounded their path, all was staked. Yet one of these
gentlemen was always suspected of treachery, and both were imbecile as
regarded that sort of wisdom on which it was possible for a royal person
to rely. Had the questions likely to arise been such as belong to a
masquerading adventure, these gentlemen might have been qualified for
the situation. As it was, they sank in mere distraction under the
responsibilities of the occasion. The king was as yet in safety. At Lord
Southampton's country mansion, he enjoyed the protection of a loyal
family ready to face any risk in his behalf; and his retreat was
entirely concealed. Suddenly this scene changes. The military commander
in the Isle of Wight is acquainted with the king's situation, and
brought into his presence, together with a military guard, though no
effort had been made to exact securities from his honor in behalf of the
king. His single object was evidently to arrest the king. His military
honor, his duty to the parliament, his private interest, all pointed to
the same result, viz., the immediate apprehension of the fugitive
prince. What was there in the opposite scale to set against these
notorious motives? Simply the fact that he was nephew to the king's
favorite chaplain, Dr. Hammond. What rational man, in a case of that
nature, would have relied upon so poor a trifle? Yet even this
inconsiderable bias was much more than balanced by another of the same
kind but in the opposite direction. Colonel Hammond was nephew to the
king's chaplain, but in the meantime he was the husband of Cromwell's
niece; and upon Cromwell privately, and the whole faction of the
Independents politically, he relied for all his hopes of advancement.
The result was, that, from mere inertia of mind and criminal negligence
in his two attendants, the poor king had run right into the custody of
the very jailer whom his enemies would have selected by preference.

Thus, then, from fear of being made a prisoner Charles had quietly
walked into the military prison of Carisbrook Castle. The very security
of this prison, however, might throw the governor off his guard. Another
escape might be possible; and again an escape was arranged. It reads
like some leaf torn from the records of a lunatic hospital, to hear its
circumstances and the particular point upon which it split. Charles was
to make his exit through a window. This