CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 15 



assured the colonel all things were prepared, and that about 

 midnight his longboat should wait at the place appointed. The 

 set hour drawing nigh, the colonel, with Peters, went to the 

 seaside (leaving His Majesty and Lord Wilmot in a posture to 

 come away upon call), where they remained all night ; but seeing 

 no longboat, neither hearing any message from the master of the 

 ship, at the break of day the colonel returns to the inn and 

 beseeches the King and Lord Wilmot to haste from thence. His 

 Majesty was entreated, but Lord Wilmot was desirous to stay 

 behind a little, promising to follow the King to Bridport, where 

 His Majesty intended to make a halt for him. When the King 

 was gone, the Lord Wilmot sent Peters into Lyme to demand of 

 Captain Ellesdon the reason why Limbry broke his promise and 

 forfeited his word. He seemed much surprised with this message, 

 and said he knew no reason, except it being fair day the seamen 

 were drunk in taking their farewell, and withal advised his 

 lordship to be gone, because his stay there could not be safe."* 

 What really seems to have happened was this, if we may judge 

 from the account given by Limbry himself : That he had put forth 

 his ship beyond the Cob's-mouth into Charmouth Road on the 

 night of the 22nd as arranged, where the seamen were all ready 

 in her waiting his coming ; that he went to his house about ten 

 that night for linen to carry with him, and was unexpectedly 

 locked into a chamber by his wife, to whom he had a little before 

 revealed his intended voyage with some passengers into France, 

 for whose transportation, at his return, he was to receive a 

 considerable sum of money from Captain Ellesdon. The woman, 

 it seems, who had been to the fair, was frightened into a panic by 

 that dreadful proclamation of the 10th of September, set out by 

 the men of Westminster, and published that day at Lyme. In this 

 a heavy penalty was thundered out against all who should conceal 

 the King or any of his party who were at Worcester fight, and a 

 reward of a thousand pounds promised to any that should betray 

 him. She, apprehending the persons her husband engaged to 

 * " Claustrum Regale Reseratum." 



