better acquainted, and that coast was most proper to transport him into France, to which he was inclined. Upon this matter he communicated with those of this family to whom he was known; that is, with the old gentleman (the father), a very grave and venerable person, the colonel (his eldest son), a very plain man in his discourse and behaviour, but of a fearless courage, and an integrity superior to any temptation, and a daughter of the house, of a very good wit and discretion, and very fit to bear part in any trust. It was a benefit as well as an inconvenience, in those unhappy times, that the affections of all men were almost as well known as their faces, by the discovery they had made of themselves in those sad seasons, in many trials and persecutions. So that men knew not only the minds of their next neighbours, and those who inhabited near them, but, upon conference with their friends, could choose fit houses, at any distance, to repose themselves in security, from one end of the kingdom to another, without trusting to the hospitality of a common inn; and men were very rarely deceived in their confidence upon such occasions, but the persons with whom

they were, at any time could conduct them to another house of the same affection.

"Mr. Lane had a niece, a very near kinswoman, who was married to a gentleman, one Mr. Norton, a person of eight or nine hundred per annum, who lived within four or five miles of Bristol, which was at least four or five days' journey from the place where the king then was, but a place most to be wished for the king to be in, because he did not only know all that country very well, but knew many persons also, to whom, in any extraordinary case, he durst make himself known. It was hereupon resolved, that Mrs. Lane should visit this cousin, who was known to be of good affections; and that she should ride behind the king, who was fitted with clothes and boots for such a service; and that a servant of her father's, in his livery, should wait upon her. A good house was easily pitched upon for the first night's lodging: there Wilmot had notice given to meet; and in this equipage the king began his journey, the colonel (Col. Lane) keeping him company at a distance, with a hawk upon his fist, and two or three spaniels, which, when there were any fields at hand, war

ranted him to ride out of the way, keeping his company still in his eye, and not seeming to be of it. In this manner they came to their first night's lodging, and about the close of the day, for it was in the month of October, far advanced, so that the long journeys they made could not be dispatched sooner. Here the Lord Wilmot met them, and their journeys being there adjusted, he was instructed where he should be every night; so they were seldom seen together in the journey, and rarely lodged in the same house at night. In this manner the colonel hawked two or three days, till he had brought them within less than a day's journey of Mr. Norton's house, and then he gave his hawk to the Lord Wilmot, who continued the journey in the same exercise.

"There was great care taken, when they came to any house, that the king might be presently carried into some chamber, Mrs. Lane declaring 'that he was a neighbour's son, whom his father had lent her to ride before her, in hope that he would the sooner recover from a quartan ague, with which he had been miserably afflicted, and was not yet free;' and by this artifice she caused a good bed to be still provided for him, and the

best meat to be sent, which she often carried herself to hinder others from doing it.

"There was no resting in any place till they came to Mr. Norton's, nor any thing extraordinary that happened in the way, save that they met many people every day in the way, who were very well known to the king; and the day that they went to Mr. Norton's they were necessarily to ride quite through the city of Bristol, a place and people that the king had been so well acquainted with, that he could not but send his eyes abroad to view the great alterations which had been made there after his departure from thence; and when he rode near the place where the great fort had stood, he could not forbear putting his horse out of the way, and rode with his mistress behind him round about it."

Mrs. Austin. How could he be so silly; so careless of Mrs. Lane and himself?

Mr. Austin. There was, it must be confessed, a strange indifference, or wonderful philosophy, in his character, (religion, unhappily, he had little,) during the whole of the time he was thus riding about: whenever opportunity offered he diverted himself with little household sports in as unconcerned a manner as if he had had no loss,

and had been in no danger at all. He never seemed to lay any thing at heart, and was as serene under the loss of a crown as the greatest philosopher could have been.

Mrs. Austin. At what period had he been so much at Bristol?

Mr. Austin. He commanded in the west during the last three or four years of his father's reign, and resided chiefly at Bristol.

"They came to Mr. Norton's house sooner than usual; and it being a holiday, they saw many people about a bowling-green that was before the door; and the first man the king saw was a chaplain of his own, who was allied to the gentleman of the house, and was sitting upon the rails to see how the people played. William, by which name the king went, walked with his horse into the stable, until his mistress could provide for his retreat. Mrs. Lane was very welcome to her cousin, and was presently conducted to her chamber, where she no sooner was than she lamented the condition of a good youth who came with her, and whom she had borrowed of his father to ride before her, who was very sick, being newly recovered of an ague,' and desired her cousin that a chamber might be provided for

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