“To-morrow at noon at Bolton, in Lancashire, as I am informed, my liege,” replied Clavering, to whom the question seemed to be addressed.
“To-morrow at noon—ha!” exclaimed Charles, sadly. “Then one of the best and bravest spirits in England will wing its flight to purer spheres! Prepare yourselves to be astonished, gentlemen, by what I am about to relate. As I live and stand before you,” he added, in a tone of so much solemnity that it struck awe in his hearers, “I have been warned that Derby would die at the time you have mentioned.”
“May I venture to ask your Majesty how you received the warning?” said Clavering.
“From the earl himself,” replied Charles. “You all stare and look incredulous. But it is so, unless I have conjured up a phantom from mine own imagination. I saw him the night before last at midnight—I saw him again last night. Nay, methought I beheld his shadowy figure, not long ago, in this very forest.”
“Here! in this forest, sire?” exclaimed Clavering.
“Moving amidst the trees by my side,” replied Charles. “I beheld him quite plainly, though I mentioned not the circumstance.”
“And the apparition, if such it may be called, came to warn your Majesty, you say?” cried Clavering.
“The earl, or a spirit in his likeness, warned me,” replied the king, “that his execution would take place to-morrow—the truth of which sad intelligence you yourself have just confirmed—and the semblance of my gallant Derby added, that if I quitted not England before his head was laid upon the block, I should share the same fate as my martyred father. Hence my anxiety to set sail at daybreak to-morrow will be intelligible to you.”
“Your haste and inquietude are now perfectly intelligible, sire,” replied Clavering.
“The circumstance is strange, and inexplicable even to myself,” said Charles. “But it is best to accept such matters as they come, without seeking to examine them too closely. It may be a delusion, or it may be real, I cannot say which; but I shall act as if the warning had been given me by my beloved Derby in person. But I shall grow sad if I suffer my thoughts to dwell longer on this theme. Let us on!”
With this, he put his steed once more in motion, and the little cavalcade proceeded in the same order and at the same pace as before. By pursuing the avenue to its full extent, the king would have been brought nearer Stanstead House than his conductors judged prudent. They therefore turned off on the left, and soon came to a more open part of the forest, where the timber, being scattered, attained larger growth. Here they encountered a woodman, with a hatchet over his shoulder, accompanied by a lad, and both stood still to gaze at the cavalcade; but on recognizing Colonel Gunter, who was known to him, the forester doffed his fur cap and went his way. Further on, they met a couple of huntsmen in Lord Lumley’s livery, and these men likewise testified surprise on beholding the party. But again Colonel Gunter’s presence prevented interruption.
After quitting the forest and skirting Stanstead Park, the royal party pursued their way through a lovely and well-wooded district, until they came to the foot of an eminence called Bow Hill, and entered the narrow and picturesque vale denominated Kingly Bottom—so called from a battle between the inhabitants of Chichester and the Danes—and Charles failed not to notice the group of venerable yew-trees—venerable in his days, though still extant, with the trifle of two centuries added to their age—that adorn the valley. After this, they passed Stoke Down, bestowing a passing observation on the curious circular hollows indented in the sod.
From the acclivities over which the travellers next rode the ancient and picturesque city of Chichester could be seen on the level land near the sea, the tall spire and pinnacles of its noble cathedral, the adjacent bell-tower, and the quaint old octagonal market-cross, erected in the fifteenth century, all rising above the crumbling walls still surrounding the city. As Charles looked towards this fine old cathedral, he could not help deploring to his companions the damage it had sustained at the hands of the sacrilegious Republican soldiers.