Communicated by Mr. James Waylen, 



97 



Highness's Guard." His delinquency consisted in his having 

 voluntarily left his dwelling-place, and resided in Oxford during 

 the progress of hostilities. Forty pounds was the small sum for 

 which he compounded in September, 1647, his estate being esti- 

 mated at only £20 per annum. Commons' Journals, v., 302. He 

 afterwards became Solicitor-General ; and, in his capacity of a 

 Wiltshire magistrate, his name constantly appears at public 

 meetings in this county during the three succeeding reigns. There 

 appears to have been a strong personal attachment between Mr. 

 Levett and his royal master. In the matter of the King's attempt 

 to escape to the French coast about Christmas, 16 £6, he played an 

 important part, being the person appointed to convey a hundred 

 pounds to the Dutch captain who undertook to carry the King over 

 from Newcastle. The captain indeed got the money ; but the King's 

 friends having reason to suspect that the Mayor of Newcastle was 

 on the watch, abandoned the design and resolved to try Hartlepool. 

 Here, again, they were defeated, through the faint-heartedness of a 

 messenger, named Tobias Peaker, who turned informer. Lords' 

 Journals, viii., 666. 



Long after the wars Mr. Levett distinguished himself as one of 

 the writers in favour of the authenticity of the work styled when in 

 manuscript Suspiria Regalia, but better known after its publication 

 as the Eikon Basilike ; that is to say, he defended the proposition of 

 its being the King's own composition, in opposition to Dr. Gauden's 

 claims to the authorship. He tells us that while attending His 

 Majesty during his captivity in Carisbrooke Castle, he had often 

 observed him working on the original manuscript, both writing in 

 it and perusing it as he sat in the settle of the window of his 

 chamber. And occasionally when the King had left the manuscript 

 on the window-settle, he (Mr. Levett) had examined it, so that no 

 doubt was left on his own mind as to the authorship. His letter 

 to the compiler of the " Restitution to the Royal Author" containing 

 the above declaration, is dated from " Savernak park, near Marl- 

 borough, 29 April, 1691." Referring to the unfortunate prayer in 

 the Eikon, which Milton at once detected as being stolen from Sir 

 Philip Sydney's Arcadia, Mr. Levett, anxious to save the royal 



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