four men and a boy (which was all his ship's company), and so got to
Fecamp in France.
[On Saturday, October 11th, 1651, Colonel Gunter made an agreement
at Chichester with Nicholas Tettersell, through Francis Mansell (a
French merchant), to have Tettersell's vessel ready at an hour's
warning. Charles II., in his narrative dictated to Pepys in 1680,
said, "We went to a place, four miles off Shoreham, called
Brighthelmstone, where we were to meet with the master of the ship,
as thinking it more convenient to meet there than just at Shoreham,
where the ship was. So when we came to the inn at Brighthelmstone
we met with one, the merchant Francis Mansell] who had hired the
vessel, in company with her master [Tettersell], the merchant only
knowing me, as having hired her only to carry over a person of
quality that was escaped from the battle of Worcester without naming
anybody."
The boat was supposed to be bound for Poole, but Charles says in his
narrative: "As we were sailing the master came to me, and desired me
that I would persuade his men to use their best endeavours with him
to get him to set us on shore in France, the better to cover him
from any suspicion thereof, upon which I went to the men, which were
four and a boy."
After the Restoration Mansell was granted a pension of L200 a year,
and Tettersell one of L100 a year. (See "Captain Nicholas
Tettersell and the Escape of Charles II.," by F. E. Sawyer, F.S.A.,
"Sussex Archaeological Collections," vol. xxxii. pp. 81-104).)
At Rouen he looked so poorly, that the people went into the rooms before
he went away to see whether he had not stole something or other. In the
evening I went up to my Lord to write letters for England, which we sent
away with word of our coming, by Mr. Edw. Pickering. The King supped
alone in the coach; after that I got a dish, and we four supped in my
cabin, as at noon. About bed-time my Lord Bartlett
[A mistake for Lord Berkeley of Berkeley, who had been deputed, with
Lord Middlesex and four other Peers, by the House of Lords to
present an address of congratulation to the King.--B.]
(who I had offered my service to before) sent for me to get him a bed,
who with much ado I did get to bed to my Lord Middlesex in the great
cabin below, but I was cruelly troubled before I could dispose of him,
and quit
|