CHARLES II. IN DORSET. 19 



interference, treated the affair lightly. But Captain Macy, the 

 Republican officer commanding the nearest picket, equipped his 

 troop as soon as the tidings reached him and gallopped off on 

 the London-road in pursuit of the fugitives. Ere, however, they 

 came in sight, the Royal party, little knowing the jeopardy from 

 which they were escaping, had taken the road to Yeovil, and, 

 while Macy and his men pushed on furiously in the direction of 

 Dorchester, reached without molestation a village called Broad- 

 winsor, as I have before mentioned. Arriving at Broadwinsor the 

 fugitives repaired to the George (at that time, Mr. Hughes says, 

 called the Castle), the only inn in the place, kept by one Rice 

 Jones, formerly known to Colonel Wyndham, and a lodging was 

 procured for the party in the upper story for the sake of greater 

 caution. (Curiously enough I have in my possession a seven- 

 teenth century farthing token of Broadwinsor, dated 1667, 

 belonging to one Alice Jones. Could she have been the wife of 

 the loyal host of the George, but then, may be, a widow, from 

 the circumstances of her initials only appearing on the token 1 

 This is, I believe, the only token of Broadwinsor known to exist.) 

 Before the party had been long in the house about 40 soldiers 

 on their way to Jersey came in unexpectedly to be billeted 

 there for the night. The confusion which ensued in the narrow 

 kitchen was presently worse confounded by the screams of one of 

 the female camp followers, who was suddenly taken in labour, 

 and by the squabble which presently issued between the troopers 

 and the parish officers, who came down to resist this unwelcome 

 addition to their population. The greater part of the night was 

 consumed in this brawl, which, though it effectually deprived the 

 King of rest, tended to his security by occupying the attention of 

 the soldiers till the time for marching had arrived. It was here, 

 in all probability, finding the neighbourhood full of soldiers 

 drawn together no doubt towards Weymouth with the object of 

 joining in the long-talked-of expedition from that place against 

 the loyal Channel Islands that Charles and his party gave up all 

 further idea of attempting to escape to France from the Dorset 



