Ovingdean Grange by W. Harrison Ainsworth

“I hope it may turn out as you anticipate,” said Lord Wilmot; “but I am not without fears to the contrary.”

“Thou art always full of apprehension, Wilmot,” said the king. “I never allow fears to disturb me. Give me another glass of canary. Here is to fair Mistress Dulcia Beard!” he added, with a smile at Clavering. “You must tell me more about her as we ride on.”

Charles and his companions remained for about a quarter of an hour longer in the parlour. They then summoned the host, paid their shot, and called for their horses. As the street near the inn seemed to be rather full of people, and some one amongst them might possibly recognize the royal fugitive, it was agreed that his Majesty’s horse should be led to the outskirts of the town, on the road to Bramber, where he could join them.

Accordingly, while the others were engaged with the ostler, Charles slipped away, and proceeding along the street in which stands the curious old gabled house called the Brotherhood Hall, even then used as a grammar school, soon reached the antique church, built on the site of the still older wooden fabric constructed by Saint Cuthman, of whom mention has been made in an earlier portion of our Tale.

Having lingered near this old pile for a few minutes, without bestowing many thoughts, we fear, upon good Saint Cuthman, Charles set off again, and marching at a quick pace was presently out of the town, and at the spot where his attendants were waiting for him. Here he mounted his horse, and the troop set off for Bramber, the woody mound upon which the ruins of the old Norman castle are situated rising majestically before them at the distance of less than a mile.

VII

DITCHLING BEACON

THE royal wanderer, now approaching the ancient stronghold of the Braoses, had neither leisure nor inclination to mount the woody side of the eminence and examine the shattered fragment of its keep, supposed to have been demolished by gunpowder, but was. fain to content himself with such view as the road afforded of the picturesque ruins of the castle, and the venerable church of Saint Nicholas nestling under its grey and crumbling walls. Charles, however, was much amused by the diminutive size and quaint architecture of the habitations composing the little village of Bramher, many of which were so low that a tall man could look in at their upper windows. Several of these curious old houses, which were built towards the latter end of the sixteenth century, are still left, and a very good notion of an English village in Shakespeare’s time may be formed by a visit to Bramber. The king’s advance-guard ascertained, greatly to their satisfaction, that the troop of Republican soldiers had gone on to Shoreham; and as Charles crossed the little bridge over the Adur, he could see the long line of red coats, distinguishable by their glittering casques and corslets, passing on the left bank of the river on their way thither. Under ordinary circumstances the royal party would have taken the same route; but even if they had intended it, the hostile force in advance would have deterred them from proceeding in that direction. They now proposed to continue their journey along a little-frequented road, leading from the defile of the Adur to Poynings, and running at the foot of the precipitous range of downs overlooking the Weald of Sussex.

Here it was that Colonel Gunter, and his kinsman the captain, took leave of the king for a while, and struck off along the uplands on the east bank of the Adur, in the direction of Shoreham, it being the colonel’s intention to seek an interview with Captain Tattersall, and ensure, at any cost, the skipper’s departure before daybreak. The colonel set out to his expedition, full of confidence that he should be at Ovingdean Grange almost as soon as the king himself, and should bring his Majesty word that all had been satisfactorily settled. While, therefore, Charles and his now diminished escort rode in one direction, Colonel Gunter and his kinsman set off in another; the latter shaping their course towards Shoreham, but keeping on the acclivities, in order to avoid the soldiers.