gged a private room for him, where he might be
quiet. Though Charles kept himself retired in this chamber, the butler,
one Pope, soon knew him: the king was alarmed, but made the butler
promise that he would keep the secret from every mortal, even from his
master; and he was faithful to his engagement.

No ship, it was found, would for a month set sail from Bristol, either
for France or Spain, and the king was obliged to go elsewhere for a
passage. He intrusted himself to Colone Windham of Dorsetshire, an
affectionate partisan of the royal family. The natural effect of the
long civil wars, and of the furious rage to which all men were wrought
up in their different factions, was, that every one's inclinations and
affections were thoroughly known; and even the courage and fidelity
of most men, by the variety of incidents, had been put to trial. The
royalists, too, had, many of them, been obliged to make concealments in
their houses for themselves, their friends, or more valuable effects;
and the arts of eluding the enemy had been frequently practised.
All these circumstances proved favorable to the king in the present
exigency. As he often passed through the hands of Catholics, the priests
hole, as they called it, the place where they were obliged to conceal
their persecuted priests, was sometimes employed for sheltering their
distressed sovereign.

Windham, before he received the king, asked leave to intrust the
important secret to his mother, his wife, and four servants, on whose
fidelity he could rely. Of all these, no one proved wanting either in
honor or discretion. The venerable old matron, on the reception of her
royal guest, expressed the utmost joy, that having lost, without regret,
three sons and one grandchild in defence of his father, she was now
reserved, in her declining years, to be instrumental in the preservation
of himself. Windham told the king, that Sir Thomas, his father, in the
year 1636, a few days before his death, called to him his five sons. "My
children," said he, "we have hitherto seen serene and quiet times under
our three last sovereigns: but I must now warn you to prepare for clouds
and storms. Factions arise on every side, and threaten the tranquillity
of your native country. But whatever happen, do you faithfully honor and
obey your prince, and adhere to the crown. I charge you never to forsake
the crown, though it should hang upon a bush." "These last words,"
added Windham, "made such im