CHARLES AND CARELESS HIDING IN THE OAK _To face Title._ SITE OF FORT ROYAL 9 JANE LANE PRESENTED TO CHARLES II. 27 ROOM IN THE COMMANDERY 65 OLD BRIDGE AT POWICK 110 PLAN OF WORCESTER IN 1651 128 WHITE LADIES 137 BOSCOBEL HOUSE 159 ROOM AT BOSCOBEL HOUSE 163 FRONT VIEW OF BOSCOBEL HOUSE 167 CHARLES HIDING IN THE SECRET CLOSET AT BOSCOBEL HOUSE 199 MOSELEY HALL 223 CHARLES AND JANE LANE SETTING OUT FROM BENTLEY HOUSE 238 ABBOTS LEIGH 272 TRENT HOUSE 293 THE KING'S ROOM IN TRENT HOUSE 306 BOSCOBEL; OR, THE ROYAL OAK. Book the First. THE BATTLE OF WORCESTER. CHAPTER I. HOW CHARLES THE SECOND ARRIVED BEFORE WORCESTER, AND CAPTURED A FORT, WHICH HE NAMED "FORT ROYAL." During the Civil Wars, the old and faithful city of Worcester suffered severely for its devotion to the royal cause. Twice was it besieged--twice sacked by the Parliamentarians. In 1642, the Earl of Essex marched with a large force against the place, stormed and pillaged it, and sent several of the wealthier citizens prisoners to London. Four years later--namely, in 1646--the city again declared for the king, and being captured by the Roundheads, after an obstinate defence, underwent harder usage than before. Besides plundering the inhabitants, the soldiers of the Commonwealth, exasperated by the resistance they had encountered, did much damage to the public buildings, especially to the cathedral, the interior of which magnificent edifice was grievously injured. According to their custom, the troopers stabled their horses in the aisles, and converted the choir into a barrack, and the chapter-house into a guard-room. The organ was destroyed; the rich painted glass of the windows broken; many monuments mutilated; and the ancient records preserved in the library burnt. The exquisitely carved stone cross in the churchyard, from the pulpit of which Latimer and Whitgift had preached, was pulled down. Before this, John Prideaux, somewhile Bishop of Worcester, had been deprived of his see, and the dean and prebends dismissed--Church of England divines having given place to Presbyterian ministers, Independents, and Anabaptists.