ere purchased two good
horses, with saddles, for the king and Major Legg. At seven in the
evening the party mounted, William Long and Jacob each leading a spare
horse. Lord Ashburnham and Sir John Berkeley joined them outside the
village, and they rode together until, crossing the bridge at Hampton,
they stopped on the river bank, at the point arranged, near the palace.
Half an hour passed, and then footsteps were heard, and two figures
approached. Not a word was spoken until they were near enough to discern
their faces.

"Thank God you are here, my Lord Ashburnham," the king said. "Fortune is
always so against me that I feared something might occur to detain you.
Ha! Master Furness, I am glad to see so faithful a friend."

The king and Major Legg now mounted, and the little party rode off.
Their road led through Windsor Forest, then of far greater extent than
at present. Through this the king acted as guide. The night was wild and
stormy, but the king was well acquainted with the forest, and at
daybreak the party, weary and drenched, arrived at Sutton, in Hampshire.
Here they found six horses, which Lord Ashburnham had on the previous
day sent forward, and mounting these, they again rode on. As the sun
rose their spirits revived, and the king entered into conversation with
Ashburnham, Berkeley, and Harry as to his plans. The latter was
surprised and disappointed to find that so hurriedly had the king
finally made up his mind to fly that no ship had been prepared to take
him from the coast, and that it was determined that for the time the
king should go to the Isle of Wight. The governor of the Isle of Wight
was Colonel Hammond, who was connected with both parties. His uncle was
chaplain to the king, and he was himself married to a daughter of
Hampden. It was arranged that the king and Major Legg should proceed to
a house of Lord Southampton at Titchfield, and that Berkeley and Lord
Ashburnham should go to the Isle of Wight to Colonel Hammond, to find
if he would receive the king. Harry, with his followers, was to proceed
to Southampton, and there to procure a ship, which was to be in
readiness to embark the king when a message was received from him.
Agents of the king had already received orders to have a ship in
readiness, and should this be done, it was at once to be brought round
to Titchfield.

"This seems to me," Jacob said, as, after separating from the king, they
rode to Southampton, "to be but poor plotting.