heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

160 THE HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
" the Colonel offered to enter the coach uninvited, His Majesty, by opposing
" his foot, made him sensible of his rudeness, so as with some shame he
" mounted his horse and followed within guard."
The coach, by the Colonel's directions, went westward, towards
Worsley town in Freshwater Isle, "where, after resting an hour, the King
" embarked in a vessel and crossed that narrow sea in three hours, and
" landed at Hurst Castle a wretched place, joined to the land by a narrow
" neck of sand, covered with small loose stones and pebbles, upon both
" sides of which the sea beats the air noxious by reason of the marish
" grounds that were about, the unwholesome vapours arising from the
" sargassos and sea-weeds, and the fogs that those marine places are subject
" to. The room, too, in which the King eat was neither large nor light-
" some, at noonday in that season requiring candles ;
" and the only place
of exercise the neck of sand, " about two miles in length, but a few paces in
" breadth." Here the King was content to walk, " much delighted," in his
marvellous equanimity in trouble, " with the sea prospects, the view of the
" Isle of Wight, and the sight of the ships of all sizes daily under sail."
To his honour be it said that though frequently urged to make his
escape, which would have been very easy, Charles positively refused, having
given his word to the Parliament not to attempt the recovery of his liberty
during the treaty.*
Noble says that Eure was rewarded for what he had done by being
appointed governor of Hurst Castle but Herbert does not mention his
;
name as such, though he speaks of " "
the governor and Noble adds that
;
^200 was voted to him by the army. Eventually Eure was appointed one
of the judges at the King's trial, and was constant in his attendance, omitting
being there only on the tenth, twelfth, and eighteenth days.
In 1649 he proceeded to Ireland with his regiment, where he distinguished
himself at the taking of Drogheda and Tredagh. Cromwell,
in his report of The Storm of Tredagh to Lenthall, the "
Speaker, says A
" great deal of loss in this business fell
upon Col. Hewson's, Col. Castle's,
" and Col. Ewer's regiments, Col. Ewer having two field-officers in his
" regiment shot." Cromwell's Letters and Speeches (Carlyle), pt. v. p. 54.
" In
" this kingdom," Noble says,
" he died possessed of a large estate, procured
" him through the patronage of Cromwell, whose devoted creature he had
" always been, and whom he had served in his vilest offices." Happily
thus he escaped the terrible retribution meted out to the surviving regicides
at the Restoration. It is a bloody page of history, which one reads with
reluctance and closes with readiness, but of which one presumes not to
judge. Men's minds had been highly wrought in the effort to obtain ends
and to defend persons very dear to them. If severe measures seemed just
* Hume's History of England, vol. v. p. 272.