o observe what passed in the street; and Sir John Preston,
and two other boys, the pupils of Hudlestone, were stationed as sentinels
at the garret windows.[1] But the danger of discovery increased every hour.
The confession of a cornet, who had accompanied him, and was afterwards
made prisoner, divulged the fact that Charles had been left at Whiteladies;
and the hope of reward stimulated the parliamentary officers to new and
more active exertions. The house of Boscobel, on the day after the king's
departure,[a] was successively visited by two parties of the enemy; the
next morning a second and more rigorous search was made at Whiteladies; and
in the afternoon the arrival of a troop of horse alarmed the inhabitants of
Moseley. As Charles, Whitgrave, and Hudlestone were standing near a window,
they observed a neighbour run hastily into the house, and in an instant
heard the shout of "Soldiers, soldiers!" from the foot of the staircase.
The king was immediately shut up in the secret place; all the other doors
were thrown open; and Whitgrave descending, met the troopers in front of
his house. They seized him as a fugitive Cavalier from Worcester; but he
convinced them by the testimony of his neighbours, that for several weeks
he had not quitted Moseley, and with much difficulty prevailed on them to
depart without searching the house.

[Footnote 1: Though ignorant of the quality of the stranger, the boys
amused the king by calling themselves his life-guard.--Boscobel, 78.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1651. Sept. 9.]

That night[a] Charles proceeded to Bentley. It took but little time to
transform the woodcutter into a domestic servant, and to exchange his
dress of green jump for a more decent suit of grey cloth. He departed on
horseback with his supposed mistress behind him, accompanied by her cousin,
Mr. Lassells; and, after a journey of three days, reached[b] Abbotsleigh,
Mr. Norton's house, without interruption or danger. Wilmot stopped at
Sir John Winter's, a place in the neighbourhood. On the road, he had
occasionally joined the royal party, as it were by accident; more generally
he preceded or followed them at a short distance. He rode with a hawk
on his fist, and dogs by his side; and the boldness of his manner as
effectually screened him from discovery as the most skilful disguise.

The king, on his arrival,[c] was indulged with a separate chamber, under
pretense of indisposition; but the next morning he found himself in t