defeated here with the loss, it is chronicled, of two kings and many nobles. In later times it was the scene of one of the most romantic passages in English history. Charles II, after his defeat at Worcester, found one of his most secure and trusted hiding-places at Bentley Hall, belonging to a fine old English gentleman by the name of Lane, and now occupied by the incumbent of Willenhall. Here he remained for several days, an honoured and welcome guest. But when he saw the notice of a thousand pounds reward to any man "who should discover and deliver up the person of Charles Stewart," and the penalty of high treason declared against those "who presumed to harbour or conceal him," he felt it was time to make his way to a country where such offers and denunciations would not hold against him. His host devised the mode of escape, which has become such a subject for the painter. He mounted his outlawed sovereign upon a horse and put his daughter. Jane Lane, behind him, and despatched them to a friend in Bristol, a port whence he hoped to reach France. He was to act the invalid son of a neighbour, who desired to try the merits of the sea air, and was willing to work his passage to it by holding the reins for Jane Lane. Her brother, the famous Col. Lane, managed to overtake them accidentally at each stopping-place for the night, and between
