As they ate they
were entertained by a minute account of the battle of Worcester, given
by a country fellow who sat beside Charles at table, and whom he
concluded, from the accuracy of his description, to have been one of
Cromwell's soldiers.
Charles asked him how he came to know so well what took place, and was
told in reply that he had been in the king's regiment. On being
questioned more closely, it proved that he had really been in Charles's
own regiment of guards.
"What kind of man was he you call the king?" asked Charles, with an
assumed air of curiosity.
The fellow replied with an accurate description of the dress worn by the
prince during the battle, and of the horse he rode. He looked at Charles
on concluding.
"He was at least three fingers taller than you," he said.
The buttery was growing too hot for Will Jackson. What if, in another
look, this fellow should get a nearer glimpse at the truth? The
disguised prince made a hasty excuse for leaving the place, being, as he
says, "more afraid when I knew he was one of our own soldiers, than when
I took him for one of the enemy's."
This alarm was soon followed by a greater one. One of his companions
came to him in a state of intense affright.
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