CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 13 



Weymouth, Poole, or Lyme. This assistance the colonel was 

 unable to obtain, but, what was probably the next best thing he 

 could do under the circumstances, brought back a considerable 

 sum of money for the use of the King. " All other plans for 

 His Majesty's escape by sea having miscarried, Colonel Wyudham 

 acquainted the King that he formerly knew one Captain William 

 Ellesdon, of Lyme, and his brother John, who by means of 

 Colonel Bullen Reymes, of Waddon, brother-in-law to Wyndham, 

 had carried over Sir John Berkeley ; and proceeded to Lyme to 

 consult Captain Ellesdon, committing, however, at first no more 

 than the name of Lord Wilmot as the person in danger. Ellesdon 

 cordially undertook to assist, and accordingly bargained with 

 Stephen Limbry, the master of a coasting vessel and a tenant of 

 his own, that the latter should for the sum of 60, to be paid on 

 the certified safe delivery of his passengers, convey a party of 

 three or four royalist gentlemen by night from Charmouth into 

 France." Thus far Hutchins. Ellesdon, in his letter to Lord 

 Clarendon, says that the party were to be described to the seamen 

 as a Mr. Payne (Lord Wilmot), a broken merchant, flying from 

 his creditors, with one servant (the King) accompanying him. 

 " The conditions of the agreement were that before the two-and- 

 twentieth day of that instant, September, Limbry should bring 

 his vessel into Charmouth Road, and on the said two-and- 

 twentieth, in the night, should receive the colonel and his 

 company into his longboat from the beach near Charmouth, from 

 thence carry them to his ship, and so land them safe in France."* 

 The tide not serving before eleven or twelve at night, it was 

 necessary that private rooms should be secured at Charmouth 

 to avoid suspicion, and, remembering that the day appointed for 

 the King's embarking was Lyme tair, lest the inn at Charmouth 

 might be filled with other guests, Henry Peters (the trusty va!et 

 of Colonel Wyndham) was sent with instructions to Charmouth ; 

 and by an earnest in money and a few glasses of wine succeeded 

 in engaging the hostess of the little inn to promise the two best 

 * " Claustrum Regale Reseratum." 



