HUTTON JOHN 253 



Blount says in his quaint little book : " His 

 Majesty, finding himself now in hopeful security, 

 spent some part of the Lord's Day in a pretty 

 Arbor in Boscobel Garden, which grew upon a 

 mount, and wherein there was a stone table and 

 seats about it. In this place he passed away some 

 time in reading, and commended the place for its 

 retirement." Perhaps it was on that day that 

 Hudleston gave the King a treatise upon the 

 Romish Church, which so impressed Charles that 

 ever afterwards he belonged, in heart, to that 

 Communion. 



Having hidden Charles for some days, John 

 Hudleston and other friends successfully disguised 

 him, and he made his escape to France. Some 

 say the faithful priest travelled with him, and 

 suffered many privations through his devotion. 



At the Restoration Charles rewarded John 

 Hudleston, and he was exempt from the terribly 

 severe laws against Papists. 



Years later, when the priest had become a 

 Benedictine monk, and the King was dying, his 

 friends, knowing his real views upon religion, were 

 anxious to get a priest to confess him secretly and 

 administer the last Sacrament. Strangely enough, 

 the priest found was none other than the faithful 

 John Hudleston. The King recognised him at 

 once, and said, "You have saved me twice, my body 

 after the battle of Worcester, and now my soul ! " 



