sent to demonstrate against our town, which, perceiving, a detachment of our forces was ordered to follow his return at a less respectful distance than was convenient.

The next day their army marched upon us, making a gallant show enough, for they bedecked themselves with much bravery in dress and accoutrements, and poured down, fifteen thousand strong, upon the slopes of Mannamead and Compton, with drums beating and colours flying. Though I had beheld them in Cornwall, yet never had I such a good view of them as now, looking at them from our fort at Maudlyn. They wear plumed hats or helmets, under which their long locks flow in the breeze, with one long tress, which they fantastically call their love-lock, waving over their left shoulder. Over their buff coat or bright cuirass is spread a wide lace collar, curiously rich, but little in keeping, as I think, with the day's work in war time. A brilliant scarf is always sashed across the breast, sometimes of embroidered work, the gift oftentimes, I doubt not, of fair maidens, skilful in these matters as Lucy Woollcombe, or the daughters of Mrs. Tonkin, or ladies of yet higher birth. Their fringed trousers descend below the knee, and they wear the large cavalry boots, not unlike our The short cloaks they wear and the doublets are common to both our armies, but though these are alike, and our fashion like theirs is to cultivate the beard and moustache, yet we do eschew the feminine senseless curls of these fine gentlemen, who look, so far as their hair is concerned, more like pretty girls than armed warriors. Armour of many kinds and patterns, that has been hanging on the walls of their old castles and fortified houses, is now brought out and worn by these Cavaliers, which makes a fine enough show; but our dress, for duty and for work, far exceeds theirs in usefulness and service.

own.

On this day there came riding with the King the brilliant troop of his Guards, who are composed, it is said, of all the noble and wealthy Cavaliers who hold no separate command. These were clad all over in armour save the boots and plumed hats, and they had splendid sword-belts and scarves of scarlet colour (ours are of orange), making a brave array. The King's standard was borne in the ranks, to which ours might well be opposed, seeing that our five buff Bibles on the black ground show well the source of our strength, and our motto in gold beneath, "God with us," will serve us in better stead than the honours to any earthly king.

And we received them fearlessly, not moved from our position by the brilliant spectacle, and our cannons began to open fire. The Cavaliers were not easily daunted; their twenty-eight great guns were brought forward and planted within half cannon shot of the outworks, and the battle began. In that battle I felt as I had never felt before; the war was become a personal war-my father had to be avenged! The cause of God was the cause for which he fought, for which he was slain; victory for that cause was my one passion that day. One and another fell before my fierce onslaught, and still I dashed forward to the fight. I would have scorned to give or take quarter as I thought of the pale, still form lying on Marston Moor, and the desolated home at Brier Grange. But I was overwhelmed by numbers, wounded, and taken prisoner by one of the King's guards.

Now I had a nearer view of King Charles than I had ever expected to have, for I was, being an officer, taken to Widey Court, the King's headquarters, to the house of a yeoman of good estate, named Heales. There I was very civilly and fairly treated, and my wound, a bad sword-cut in my right shoulder, was attended to by one of their doctors. Prince Maurice had his headquarters at Lipson, and there was much riding to and fro with messages between uncle and nephew, horses galloping at all hours of day and night in hot haste up and down the long winding path from Widey Court house to the main road from Tavistock to Plymouth. I had heard much of this abode, and had been curious to see it, it having been placed at the service of the malignants from the beginning. No better retreat so close to the town could have been chosen for the headquarters of the King, it being only some two and a half miles distant, but yet completely shut in from possible danger. The house itself stands on a gentle knoll, well surrounded with trees, the ground opposite it sloping upwards so as to hide the distant view of the sea which lies in that direction, and so as to form indeed a sort of natural earthwork and defence. I could but think seriously as I rode along, a prisoner, guarded on either side, and weaponless; and this made me reflect, perhaps, with more sympathy on the position of the King, which is, at the best, critical and humiliating for a sovereign.

There is nothing in his appearance to make me believe he regards affairs lightly. It may easily be believed that I could not refrain from looking at him anxiously and earnestly whenever I had the opportunity, and this was not unfrequent. My parole was given that I would not go beyond a fair garden belonging to this goodly mansion, to which parterre is given the name of the Castle Garden, and this being done, I was taken less heed of than I expected. My lodging was a very small and somewhat bare chamber overlooking the grounds, and from it I beheld many things of interest to me; for I saw the King ride out several mornings attended by his chief officers, and very often by the Prince Maurice also, a young man of goodly countenance and martial bearing, a soldier from his youth, though not of quite so fiery a spirit as his elder brother, Prince Rupert, whose name is dreaded, I am told, in every quiet English household.

The King's countenance is very sad, his face under his plumed hat is handsome, and would be manly were it not for a certain vagueness and irresoluteness that are to be seen in it. When he lifts his hat and I can see his forehead, which is high, there is more of admirable in his countenance. He wears a moustache and peaked beard, and the accustomed long curls of the Cavaliers. His hands are as soft and white as a girl's, and his mien very gracious and refined, and there is a grand, quiet dignity in his air that I never saw anything like before. I have found myself often wishing that his behaviour in all things had been equal to his outward appearance, so that I might have echoed what I have heard him called many times at Widey Court, "every inch a kin He has had the ill-luck, I am told, to have had may evil advisers, and the Queen is by no means a good wife to him in this respect, and he is too prone to take their advice, and to trust his affairs to unprin

cipled men. Also, he is very sanguine of success, even when he has no ground whatever to be so, and believes that his high station will preserve him from many evils.

These ideas are childish and unkingly to my mind, though not, I suppose, to his. Worthiness seems to me to be the only preservative from disaster, whether in a king or a clown. Here, as well as at other places, there are people anxious to be touched by him for the disease called "king's evil," which his touch is able, say they, to cure, and quite a little procession may have been seen of sick and afflicted ones each morning he was at Widey, coming up the path to the house for that purpose. Now it is the "king's evil that we hope to cure more promptly and effectually, by far different measures, and therein we shall succeed; and yet not we ourselves, but the Lord, working in us.

I found afterwards that Lord Digby, who was with the King, made a private appeal to Lord Robartes to betray his trust and surrender the town to the King, offering him on his Majesty's behalf preferment and honour if he would yield; but to this Lord Robartes replied indignantly enough.

The King sent from Widey, this summons to our town: "God having given me a great victory, yet as my desire is to reduce my people by acts of grace and clemency, so I am desirous of setting a special mark of favour on my town of Plymouth, and do therefore require them to surrender up the town, assuring them, on the word of a king, that they shall enjoy all their wonted privileges, and have no other garrisons put upon them than what they had in the most peaceful times, viz., in the fort and in the island, promising pardon to all townsmen and soldiers for what is past, entertaining such as shall be willing in my service, and requiring their speedy answer."

Though the reply to this was not sent very speedily, there being many to be consulted thereon, yet it was very decided at last. A drummer was sent by the Royalists after the trumpeter who brought the message, and the next day both returned, with a hint to the trumpeter that if he came again he would be hanged. And the answer to the King, couched civilly enough, meant only "No."

So then, neither town nor Governor yielding, fighting began again, and a desperate attack was made on our western line of defence by Stonehouse and Pennycomequick, but the King's troops were repulsed with great loss. Our sailors for the Parliament's fleet, under Lord Warwick, still lay in the Sound, and were especially notable for their gallantry. Several nights the Cavaliers gave alarms to the garrison, and there was much sharp fighting while I was prisoner at Widey.

I understood afterwards the reason of the daily ride out from Widey Court of the King and his officers; they proceeded each day as far as to Mannamead, in grand parade, thinking, as is believed in the town, to touch the hearts or the inclinations of the soldiers, or the townspeople, or both. Many of them, indeed almost all of them, had thus a distant or a near view of their King, and variously did his appearance affect the people. Some of the women were somewhat captivated by his gallant bearing, and his gentle manners and sad face, which I can easily believe, for Lettice might have been so

too, could she have seen him, and had there been no battle of Marston Moor.

But the soldiers had grown hard, and daily he was received with a salute of shotted shells from our guns at Maudlyn Fort. And Tom, with ready humour, re-christened Mannamead, from this brave useless show and idle vauntings, "Vapouring Hill," a name that sticks.

Then one day there was much stir and bustle at Widey, and the King went to walk alone in the castle garden with his nephew Maurice, as his manner had been each morning, amongst the pleasant autumn flowers; for this garden was very gay with golden rod, tall and large enough to have served indeed in Aaron's hand for the rod that budded, and white and purple clematis hung over the walls in thick masses, like tangled hair, and great cabbage-roses smelled sweetly, while bachelors' buttons, and dahlias, and marigolds supplied plenty of colour, though without much perfume. The Michaelmas daisies were out too, as became their season, and the bunches of lavender stood stiffly up before heaven in the modest pride of usefulness.

What were the King's thoughts that morning as he rested his gaze on the flowers close to his hands, or the autumn-tinted trees and the fair green slopes that bounded his view? His eyes wandered away from his companion often as they paced to and fro, to and fro, and I watched them intently from my little window. Was he thinking, perchance, of the town he called his own, yonder, which so determinedly held out against him, refusing its allegiance, and willing to resist stoutly, even unto death?

The

There is much about Plymouth that might make any king sorry to lose it from his grasp. history of the place is interwoven with the history of England itself.

My thoughts were interrupted by the little bustle that now took place in the court below. A lady, closely shrouded, rather than veiled, in an ample shawl of silken material, that fell in soft folds around her light small form, drew near the person of his Majesty, and yet shrunk back, as if appalled at her own boldness. Behind her, closely following her every motion, only as an elephant might imitate a gazelle, was the square stolid figure of a woman, evidently her attendant.

Could I be in doubt? No. My heart beat fast; they were, indeed, Lucy Woollcombe and Bridget. How fair, how graceful was every attitude, every action of this sweet woman who held my heart in her keeping. When the King turned to her with an easy yet not unkingly grace, and a sad smile on his handsome face, and raised her from her knees on which she had fallen before him, I heard a soft low, wail of love, entreaty, sympathy blended, from Lucy's lips, of "Oh, my King!" and I did not wonder at it.

Oh, my King!" echoed my own heart bitterly the next moment, "professing a fatherly regard for thy subjects, yet thou hast made me fatherless by the cruellest of wars, and separated me largely by a thousand adverse circumstances, over which I have no control, from the one woman who can alone make home and happiness for me. Oh, my King,' if thou could'st but have learnt that a king's true prerogative lies not in the abject submission of his subjects, but

in their honourable independent affection-an affection based on royal justice and truth!"

66

I can't tell how it was, unless it was that I kept my eyes so irresistibly fixed upon her, and even that will not explain the matter-perhaps thought can command thought in ways I know not of-but, presently, although till then Lucy's eyes had been mostly on the ground, save a few times that she raised them with filial reverence, and even something of holy awe to the King's face, she glanced up at my prison window, inadvertently, as it would seem, and met my gaze fixed intently upon her.

I saw her small hands clasp each other tightly, and a crimson flush mantle her cheek; not even the shawl could hide that from me; a start, a smilewas it a smile?—and then the glance fell. All had happened so swiftly, that I could decide nothing. Lucy was talking to the King again. Another look, sweet one! even though it were a frown of displeasure. Anything, my Lucy, rather than neglect, or coldness, or indifference. These I cannot bear from thee.

"Lieutenant Holbeck, your presence is required below."

As in a dream I obeyed the summons. I have a vague feeling that the trees waved and rustled somewhat in the distance, stirred by a rather fresh breeze, that the sky was almost cloudless, that many people were about; and the clank, and stir, and bustle of preparation everywhere around. Everywhere, save where Lucy stood with the King, and Bridget, grim and gaunt as a wooden statue, behind her mistress.

"Lieutenant Holbeck," said King Charles, in a gracious tone, as I stood respectfully, my hat in my hand, before him. I would not be other than mannerly to my greatest enemy.

"Sire," I answered, not knowing how else to speak to him, and stood as before, seeing Lucy, whose eyes were lowered, and whose cheeks were deepest crimson, even more than I saw the King, but with no opportunity given to accost her.

There is an exchange of prisoners; you will ride back to your own quarters to-day."

"I thank you, sire." I had not the remotest idea whether I used the right form of expression to his Majesty. In such sudden emergency I could do no other than use those words which came the swiftest to my lips.

66

This lady," said the King then, taking Lucy's hand, "and her maid, will return in your company and escort."

It came into my mind to say, "And I would that the King were faithful to every man," but because he was now in trouble, through our stout defence of Plymouth, and because that it might needlessly wound Lucy through her Sovereign, I refrained myself.

"Young sir," said the King, who I knew had observed me closely, "does it seem a worthy occupation to you to resist the right bestowed by God upon your Sovereign, for the better government of this realm, a right acknowledged by so many of the truest and the best of men?"

"Sire," I answered, seeing that I must say somewhat, and yet feeling that I had no power of speech adequate to my needs in so difficult a juncture, "they best serve your Majesty, to my thinking, who would heal the differences between your Majesty and his people, by truth and righteousness, not they who would flatter your Majesty into believing there are no just differences to be healed."

Tut! tut!" said the King, impatiently, turning away from me. Yet Lucy, to my surprise, now for the first time gave me a quick glance, and that of approval.

But I was summoned away to put my things together, and prepare for my removal. As I turned, with a reverence to the King and to Lucy, I observed that she was in the act of handing to him a sma sealed packet.

Then, as in a dream, the whole scene changed, for when I had opportunity to look from my window, in less time than a quarter of an hour, Lucy was gone, as I suppose, within doors,and the royal pageant, the King, Prince Maurice, and their retinues, with their pomps and their plumes, had ridden away from the court-yard, and most of the people belonging to Widey had gone with them to escort them on their way.

That same day, a few hours later, it happened as the King had said. Lucy and her maid on one horse rode by my side into Plymouth, together with a few of our soldiers who had also been prisoners. There were several of the officers of the malignants captives with us, whom the King and Prince were anxious to redeem. Yet the ride could give me but little pleasure, save in her nearness, for there was no opportunity for me to speak to her without bringing on her just the kind of notice she would be most anxious to escape.

I bowed. "Nothing, sire, could afford me more pleasure than to render this lady every assistance in my power."

ful Royalist, I thank you."