"That's not saying much for your Staffordshire cooks, and less for your
larders," replied the maid, with a head-toss of superiority.

The house where this took place still stands, with the old jack hanging
beside the fireplace; and those who have seen it of late years do not
wonder that Charles was puzzled how to wind it up. It might puzzle a
wiser man.

There is another story in which the prince played his part as a kitchen
servant. It is said that the soldiers got so close upon his track that
they sought the house in which he was, not leaving a room in it
unvisited. Finally they made their way to the kitchen, where was the man
they sought, with a servant-maid who knew him. Charles looked around in
nervous fear. His pursuers had never been so near him. Doubtless, for
the moment, he gave up the game as lost. But the loyal cook was mistress
of the situation. She struck her seeming fellow-servant a smart rap with
the basting-ladle, and called out, shrewishly,--

[Illustration: SCENE ON THE RIVER AVON.]

"Now, then, go on with thy work; what art thou looking about for?"

The soldiers laughed as Charles sprang up with a sheepish aspect, and
they turned away without a thought that in this servant lad lay hidden
the prince they sought.

On September 13, ten days after the battle, Miss Lane and her groom
reached Abbotsleigh, where they took refuge at the house of Mr. Norton,
Colonel Lane's cousin. To the great regret of the fugitive, he learned
here that there was no vessel in the port of Bristol that would serve
his purpose of flight. He remained in the house for four days, under his
guise of a servant, but was given a chamber of his own, on pretence of
indisposition. He was just well of an ague, said his mistress. He was,
indeed, somewhat worn out with fatigue and anxiety, though of a
disposition that would not long let him endure hunger or loneliness.

In fact, on the very morning after his arrival he made an early
toilette, and went to the buttery-hatch for his breakfast. Here were
several servants, Pope, the butler, among them. Bread and butter seems
to have been the staple of the morning meal, though the butler made it
more palatable by a liberal addition of ale and sack. As they ate they
were entertained by a minute account of the battle of Worcester, given
by a country fellow who sat beside Charles at table, and whom he
concluded, from the accuracy of his description, to have been one of
Cromwell's soldiers.