i86 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



His Majesty with what had happened." In one of 

 the lofty rooms of Place House, Charles was anxiously 

 awaiting his arrival, and when Ashburnham had told 

 his story, the King, " with a very severe and reserved 

 countenance, the first of that kinde to me, said that 

 notwithstanding the engagement, Hee verily believed 

 the Governor would make him a prisoner." At length, 

 after " walkeing some few turnes in the Roome," and 

 recognising the hopelessness of the situation, he com- 

 manded that the Governor should be called up. When 

 Hammond appeared, His Majesty accepted the Engage- 

 ment, but added that he desired him to remember that 

 " Hee was to be judge of what was honourable and 

 honest." " After two houres stay more," says Ash- 

 burnham, " His Majesty took boate and went to the 

 Isle of Wight." 



It was a sad going-away that little Rachel Wriothesley 

 witnessed that November day, when Charles I., accom- 

 panied by Colonel Hammond and the ** Captaine of 

 Cowes Castle," passed beneath the grinning corbel of 

 the gate-house, and down the leafless avenue of elms, 

 to the lonely spot at the mouth of the Titchfield Haven 

 where he " tooke boate for the Isle of Wight." For 

 on leaving Titchfield the King was virtually a prisoner, 

 and the last act of the long tragedy had begun, which 

 ended just fourteen months later, when in the Chapel 

 of St. George's, Windsor, the decapitated body of 

 Charles I. was secretly laid to rest, in the presence 

 of Rachel's father and of three other noblemen. 



In more modern times, after the Southampton family 

 had become extinct. Place House passed into the 

 possession of strangers ; and in the last century Fox 

 and Pitt were more than once entertained there by 

 the beautiful Lady Betty Delme, whose celebrated 



