ey
would not allow him to escape if they could prevent it. He and his
friends, therefore, formed the following plan to elude them.

They sent word to the commanders of each of the several gates of the
city, on a certain day, that during the ensuing night three men would
have to pass out on business of the king's, and that when the men
should appear and give a certain signal, they were to be allowed to
pass. The officer at each gate received this command without knowing
that a similar one had been sent to the others.

[Illustration: NEWARK.]

Accordingly, about midnight, the parties of men were dispatched, and
they went out at the several gates. The king himself was in one of
these parties. There were two other persons with him. One of these
persons was a certain Mr. Ashburnham, and the king was disguised as
his servant. They were all on horseback, and the king had a valise
upon the horse behind him, so as to complete his disguise. This was on
the 27th of April. The next day, or very soon after, it was known at
Oxford that his majesty was gone, but no one could tell in what
direction, for there was no means even of deciding by which of the
gates he had left the city.

The Scotch were, at this time, encamped before the town of Newark,
which is on the Trent, in the heart of England, and about one hundred
and twenty miles north of London. There was a magnificent castle at
Newark in those days, which made the place very strong. The town held
out for the king; though the Scots had been investing it for some
time, they had not yet succeeded in compelling the governor to
surrender. The king concluded to proceed to Newark and enter the
Scottish camp. He considered it, or, rather, wished it to be
considered that he was coming to join them as their monarch. _They_
were going to consider it surrendering to them as their prisoner. The
king himself must have known how it would be, but it made his sense of
humiliation a little less poignant to carry this illusion with him as
long as it was possible to maintain it.

As soon as the Parliament found that the king had made his escape from
Oxford, they were alarmed, and on the 4th of May they issued an order
to this effect, "That what person soever should harbor and conceal, or
should know of the harboring or concealing of the king's person, and
should not immediately reveal it to the speakers of both houses,
should be proceeded against as a traitor to the Commonwealth, and die
with