The King had reached Whitehall at ten. It was now past noon, the dinner-hour of that day. Some dishes were provided for his use, but he would not eat. He had received the Holy Communion, and would eat no more in this world. Meanwhile, he retired to the apartments he had occupied in happier days, and gave himself up to private meditation and prayer. As the afternoon wore on, Bishop Juxon persuaded him, lest his strength should fail him at the last, to eat a piece of bread and drink a glass of wine. Then he went with the soldiers to where in the western wall of the Banqueting House the masonry had been pierced to give access to the scaffold. Jesse, writing just after Soane’s operations in 1830, reports that he had seen traces of the opening in the brickwork. He does not say clearly where it was, nor does it now greatly matter, as we know where it must have been. Charles very soon reached the scaffold and made ready for the end. Meanwhile, Juxon spoke to him of the future life. It was far off, he said, but the passage short. The King replied as if grateful for the good Bishop’s dry and dull remarks. If we contrast them with the “Son of Saint Louis, ascend to Heaven!” of another ecclesiastic, they seem all the more tame. But to the King’s ear they brought a different echo. He remembered that he had once been crowned. The applauding congregation had crowded round him in the old Abbey close by; and the words of Bishop Senhouse, so distasteful then, so truly prophetic now, came into his mind: “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” He turned to Juxon and answered, “I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown.” The Bishop, who was not at the coronation, probably wondered. Then followed the gift of his jewel of St. George, with the still unexplained charge: “Remember!” The block was low, it seemed too low. But after a moment’s hesitation—to quote the words of Marvell once more— “He laid his comely head Down as upon a bed;” and in a few moments more the White King had set out on his last journey, “faithful unto death.” CHAPTER IV _Legendary Anecdote of Cromwell and the Body of Charles I.—The Funeral—Cromwell at the Cockpit—Removes to Whitehall—Great State—Illness and Death—Richard Cromwell—Pepys on Whitehall—Lodgings in the Palace—Evelyn—St. George’s Eve—Death of Charles II.—William and Mary—Royal Apartments Burnt—Conclusion._