the scene two hundred years ago. There the exile would sit hour after hour, not as one may sit there now, to see sails and steamers entering and leaving the harbor, and post-coaches and railroad cars passing and re-passing continually; but to gaze in astonishment and fear, if one lone ship might be descried coming up the bay, or if a solitary horseman was to be seen or heard pursuing his journey in the valley below. top of the rock, we came suddenly into an open place, but so surrounded by trees and shrubs, as effectually to shut in the view. Here was the cave; and very different it was from what we had expected to find it! We had prepared ourselves to explore a small Antiparos, and were quite chagrined to find our grotto diminished to a mere den or covert, between two immense stones of a truly Stonehengian appearance and juxtaposition. I doubted for a moment whether their singular situation on the top of this While the fugitives lived in this den, mountain, were matter for the geologist or they were regularly supplied with daily the antiquary; and would like to refer the bread and other necessaries of life, by a question to the learned Dean of Westmin- woodman, who lived at the foot of the rock. ster, who hammers stones as eloquently as A child came up the mountain daily with a some of his predecessors have hammered supply of provisions, which he left on a pulpits. The stones are well-nigh equal in certain stone, and returned without seeing height, of about twenty feet perpendicular, anybody, or asking any questions of Echo. one of them nearly conical, and the other In this way he always brought a full basket almost a true parallelopiped. Betwixt and took back an empty one, without the them another large stone appears to have least suspicion that he was becoming an fallen, till it became wedged; and the very accessory in high treason, and, as it is said, small aperture between this stone and the without ever knowing to whom, or for what, ground beneath, is all that justifies the he was ministering. As a Brahmin sets name of a cave, though there are several rice before an idol, so the little one fed the fissures about the stones, in which possibly stone, or left the basket to "the unseen beasts might be sheltered, but hardly human beings. To render itself large enough for the pair that once inhabited it, the carth must have been dug from under the stone, so as to make a covered pit; and even then, it was hardly so good a place as is said to have been made for a refuge to the conies," being much fitter for wild-cats or tigers. I could scarcely persuade myself, that English law could ever have driven a man three thousand miles over the sea, and then into such a burrow as this! But so it was; and it was retribution and justice too. spirit of the wood;" and well it was that the little Red-riding-hood escaped the usual fate of all lonely little foresters, for it seems there were mouths and maws in the mountain which cheesecakes would not have satisfied. The dwellers in the rock had a terrible fright one night from the visit of some indescribable beast-a panther, or something worse-that blazed its horrid eyes into their dark hole, and growled so frightfully, that if all the bailiffs of London had surrounded their den, they would have been less alarmed. It seemed some moBad as it was, it looked more agreeable therly tigress in search of her cubs, and to Goffe and Whalley, than a cross-beam when she discovered the intruders, she set and two halters, or even than apartments up such an ululation of maternal grief as in the Tower of London. They had it fit-made every aisle of the forest ring again, ted up with a bed, and other "ereature- and so scared the inmates of her den, that, comforts" of a truly Crusoe-like descrip- as soon as they dared, they took to their tion. The mouth of the cave was screened heels down the mountain, ready to hear any by a thick growth of bushes, and the place hue and cry on their track, rather than was in several other respects well suited to hers. This story was told us by our guide, their purposes. The parallelopiped, of who gave it as a reason for their final dewhich I have spoken, was easily climbed, sertion of the place. being furnished with something like stairs, and its top commands a fine view of the town, the bay, and the country for miles around. It served them, therefore, as a watch-tower, and must have been very useful as a means of protection, as an observatory for amusement. I mounted the stone myself, and tried to fancy how different was On the stone which I climbed, I found engraven a great number of names and initials, with dates of different years. Apparently they had been left there by visitors from the university. In more than one place, some ardent youth, in his first love with democracy, had taken pains to renew the inscription, which tradition says Goffe แ and Whalley placed over their retreat. Opposition to tyrants is obedience to God." I suppose there will always be fresh men to do Old Mortality's office for this inscription, for the maxim is one which has long been popular in America among patriotic declaimers. How long it will continue generally popular, may indeed be doubted, since the abolitionists have lately adopted it, and in their mouths it becomes an incendiary watchword, which the supporters of slavery have no little reason to dread. I myself saw this motto on an anti-slavery placard set up in the streets of New York. I inferred from this inscription, and the names on the rock, that the spot is visited by some with very different feelings from those which it excited in me and my companions. Our valuable conductor, it is true, spoke of "the Judges" with as much reverence as so sturdy a republican would be likely to show to any dignity whatever; and really the honest fellow seemed to give us credit for more tenderness than we felt, and tried to express himself in such a manner, when telling of the misery of the exiles, as not to wound our sensibilities. But I fear his consideration was all lost; for, sad as it is to think of any fellow-man reduced to such extremity as to take up a lodging like this, we could only think how many of the noble and the lovely, and how many of the true and loyal poor, had been brought by Goffe and Whalley to greater miseries than theirs. I could not force myself, therefore, to the melting mood; it was enough that I thought of January 30, 1648, and said to myself, "Doubtless there is a God that judgeth in the earth." The lady recalled some facts from Lord Clarendon's History, and said that her interest in the spot was far from having anything to do with sympathy for the regicides. Her patronizing protector expressed his surprise, and jokingly assured me that she regarded it as a Mecca, or he would not have given himself the trouble of waiting on her to a place he so little respected. She owned that she was hardly consistent with herself in feeling any interest at all in the memorial of regicides; but I reminded her that Lord Capel kissed the axe which completed the work of rebellion, and deprived his royal master of life;* and we agreed that even the intelligent instruments of that martyrdom acquired a sort of reliquary value from the blood with which they were crimsoned. State Trials, ii., 389. The troglodytes, then, were but two; but there was a third fugitive regicide who came to New Haven, and now lies there in his grave. This was none other than John Dixwell, whose name, with those of Goffe and Whalley, may be found on that infamous death-warrant, which some have not scrupled to call the Major Charta. Dixwell's is set among the of rollo, who, in the day of reckoning, were judged hardly worth a hanging; but Whalley's occupies the bad eminence of being fourth on the list, and next to the hard-fisted autograph of Oliver himself; while William Goffe's is signed just before the signature of Pride, whose miserable penmanship that day, it will be remembered, cost his poor body an airing, on the gibbet, in the year 1660. Scott, by the way, gives Whalley the prænomen Richard; but there it is on the parchment, too legible for his soul's good-Edward Whalley. Shall I recur to the rest of their history in England before I come to my American narrative? Perhaps in these days of "elucidation," when it is said that everything about two hundred years since is, for the first time, undergoing a calm but earnest review, I may be indulged in recapitulating what, if everybody knows, they know only in a great confusion with other events, which impair the individual interest. Of Dixwell, comparatively little is known, save that his first act of patriotism seems to have consisted in leaving his country. Enough that he served in the parliamentary army; sat as a judge, and stood up as regicide in that High Court of Treason in Westminster Hall; was one of Oliver's colonels during the Protectorate; became sheriff of Kent, and no doubt hanged many a rogue that had a better right to live than himself; and finally sat in Parliament for the same county in 1656.* His experiences after the Restoration are not known, till he emerged in America almost ten years after the last mentioned date. Whalley was among the more notorious of the rebels. He was cousin to Oliver, and one of the few for whom Oliver sometimes exhibited a savage sort of affection. He proved himself a good soldier in a bad cause, at Naseby; and a furious one .at Banbury. When the rogues fell out among themselves, he was the officer that met Cornet Joyce as he was convoying the king's ma jesty from Holmby,† and offered to relieve * Somers's Tracts, vi., 339. the royal prisoner of his protector; an offer | do a little exposition besides, when there which Charles with great dignity refused, was any call for such an exercise; as, for preferring to let them have all the responsi-instance, at that celebrated groaning and bility in the matter, and not caring a straw wrestling which was performed at Windsor, which of the two villains should be his jailor. and ended in resolving on the murder of At Hampton Court, however, fortune de- the king, after extraordinary supplication cided in favor of Whalley, and put the and holding forth. When father Whalley king, for a time, into his power; till like removed the mace, son-in-law Goffe led in fortune put it into the king's power to get the musqueteers, and bolted out the Anarid of his brutality by flight, an accident for baptists, against whom he rode circuit which our hero got a hint of displeasure through Sussex and Berks, growing rich, from parliament. Just at this point Crom- and indulging dreams of disjointing the well addressed a letter to his "dear cousin nose of Richard, and thrusting himself into Whalley," begging him not to let anything the old shoes of the Protector, as soon as happen to his majesty; in which his sincer- they should be empty." He, too, sacriity was doubtless as genuine as that of cer- ficed his feelings so far as to become a lord; tain patriots in the Pickwick history, who, and, perhaps, thinking that royal shoes out of regard to certain voters coming down would fit him as well as republican ones, he to the election, with money in their hands at last consented to making Oliver a king. and tears in their eyes, besought the senior Nor were his honors wholly of a civil chaWeller not to upset the whole cargo of them racter, for he was made an M. A. at Oxford, into the canal at Islington. After getting and so secured himself a notice in Anthony out of this scrape, and doing the damning Wood's biographies, where his story condeed that got him into a worse one, he cludes with a set of mistakes, so relishably fleshed his sword against the king's Scottish served up, that I must give it in the very kinsmen, at Dunbar, where he lost a horse words of the Fasti, as follows:-" In 1660, under him, and received a cut in his wrist, a little before the restoration of King though not severe enough to prevent his Charles II., he betook himself to his heels writing a saucy letter to the governor of to save his neck, without any regard had to Edinburgh castle. He was the man that his majesty's proclamation; wandered about took away the mace, when Cromwell broke fearing every one that he met should slay up his Barebones' parliament. Then he him; and was living at Lausanna in 1664 rode through Lincoln, and five other coun- with Edward Ludlow, Edward Whalley, ties, dealing with recusant Anabaptists, and other regicides, when John l'Isle, anoas one of the "Major Generals;" demurred ther of that number. was there, by certain a little, at first, at the king-manufacturing generous royalists, despatched. He afterconference, but finally came into the pro-wards lived several years in vagabondship; ject; and, from a sense of duty, so far but when he died, or where his carcase was overcame his republican scruples as to al- lodged, is as yet unknown to me."§ low himself to take a seat in the House of On Christmas day, 1657, good John Lords, as one of the Oliverian peerage. § If Evelyn went to London, in spite of many titles were to be had with estates, like the severe penalties incurred thereby, to receive Lordship of Linne, he was surely entitled the holy sacrament from a priest of the to his peerage, for he was growing fat on Church of England. Mr. Gunning, afterthe Duke of Newcastle's patrimony, with wards Bishop of Ely, was the officiating part of the jointure of poor Henrietta Ma- clergyman, and preached a sermon approria, when, God be praised, the day of reck-priate to the festival. As he was proceedoning arrived; and my lord Whalley, surmising that, should any one come to the rope, he was likely to swing if he remained in England, made off beyond seas. Goffe, too, was one of the Cromwellian cousinry, having married a daughter of Whalley.|| He was a soldier, but could * Carlyle. Clarendon, iii., 590. ing with the Eucharist, the place where they were worshipping was beset by Oliver's ruffians, who, pointing their muskets at the communicants, through the doors and windows, threatened to shoot them as they knelt before the altar. Evelyn surmises that they were not authorized to go so far * Letters and Speeches, &c., by Carlyle. + Fasti Oxon., ii., 79. + Carlyle. Fasti Oxon., ii., p. 79. Anno 1649. as that, and consequently they did not | He lived in Rhode Island till he was more put their threat into execution; but both than a hundred years old, begetting sons priest and people were taken prisoners, and and daughters, to whom he bequeathed the brought under guard before the magistrates surname of Whale. Whoever he was, he to answer for the serious misdemeanor of seems to have been a sincere penitent, which they had been guilty. Before whom whose conscience would not let him rest. should the gentle friend of Jeremy Taylor He slept on a deal board instead of a bed, find himself standing as a culprit, but these and practised many austerities, accusing worshipful Justices, Whalley and Goffe! himself as a man of blood, and deprecating It was, doubtless, by their orders that the the justice of God. The particulars of his solemnities of the day had been profaned. guilt he never disclosed; and as his name Evelyn seems to have got off with only was probably an assumed one, it is diffia severe catechizing; but many of his fel-cult to surmise what share he had in the low-worshippers were imprisoned and oth- murder of his king. There was in Hacker's erwise severely punished. The examina- regiment one Whalley, a lieutenant; and tion was probably conducted by the theolo- Stiles, the American writer, thinks this gically exercised Goffe, for the specimen Whale may have been the same man. But preserved by Evelyn is worthy of his ge- then, what did this Whalley perpetrate to nius in every way. The amiable confessor account for such horrible remorse? Conwas asked how he dared to keep "the su-sidering Hacker's active part in the bloodperstitious time of the Nativity;" and was iest scene of the great tragedy, and the admonished that in praying for kings he conflicting testimony in Hulet's trial, as to had been praying for Charles Stuart, and the man that struck the blow; and coupeven for the king of Spain, who was a Pa-ling this with the fact, that an effort was pist! Moreover, he was told that the Prayerbook was nothing but the Mass in English, and more to the like effect; "and so," says Evelyn," they dismissed me, pitying much my ignorance." This anecdote, accidentally preserved by Evelyn, shows what kind of characters they were. They seem to have been as sincere as any of their fanatical comrades, though it is always hard to say of the Puritan leaders which were the cunning bypocrites, and which the deluded zealots. Whatever they may have been, their time was short, so far as England is concerned with them; and in three years after this event, they suddenly disappeared. So perfectly did they bury themselves from the world, that from the year 1660, till the romance of Scott* again brought the name of Whalley before the world, it may be doubted whether anything was known in England of lives, which in another hemisphere were protracted almost into another generation. Nobody dreamed there was yet an American chapter in the history of the regicides. Yet, considering the known disposition of the colonies, and their inaccessible fastnesses, it is remarkable that only three of the fugitives found their way across the Atlantic. Another, indeed, there was, a mysterious person, of whom it is only known, that though concerned in the regicide, he was not probably one of "the judges." * Notes to Peveril of the Peak. made to procure one of several lieutenants to do the work,† I confess I once thought there was some reason to suspect that this fellow's accusing conscience was terribly earned, and that he at least had been one of the masks that figured on the scaffold. This surmise, though shaken by nothing that came out on the state trials, I have since discharged, in deference to the opinion of Miss Strickland, who is satisfied that the greybeard was Hulet, and the actual regicide, Gregory Brandon. The American history of the regicides begins with the 27th of July following the Restoration, when Whalley and Goffe landed at Boston, bringing the first news that the king had been proclaimed, of which it seems they had tidings before they were clear of the Channel. Proscribed as they were, they were heroes among the colonists, and even Endicott, the governor, ventured to give them a welcome. The inhabitants of Boston and its environs paid them many attentions, and they appeared at large with no attempt at concealing their names and character. The Bostonians were not all Republicans, however; and several zealously affected Royalists having been noticed among their visitors, they suddenly conceived the air of Cambridge more salubrious than that of Boston, and took up their abode in that village, now a mere suburb * Sir Thomas Herbert's Two Last Years, p. 189. + State Trials, ii, 386. + Lives of the Queens, vol. viii. of the city. There they freely mingled | ried with masterly skill and activity, and with other men, and were admitted as com- rewarded by another salute from the broommunicants in the Calvinistic meetings of stick, which ludicrously besmeared the the place; and sometimes, it appears, they sword-player's eyes; the crowd setting up even ventured, like the celebrated party at a roar of merriment at his crest-fallen apthe Peak, "to exhibit their gifts in extem- pearance. A third lunge was again spent poraneous prayer and exposition." On upon the cheese, amid shouts of laughter; visiting the city, they once received some while the broomsman calmly mopped nose, insult, for which the assailant was bound eyes, and beard, of his antagonist's puffing over to keep the peace; though, if he had and blowing physiognomy. Entirely transbut known it, he was so far from having ported with rage and chagrin, the champion done any wrong in the eye of law, that he now dropped his rapier, and came at his was entitled to a hundred pounds reward, ridiculous adversary with the broadsword. for bringing before a magistrate either of "Hold, hold, my good fellow," cried the worthies who appeared against him. Broomstick, "so far all's fair play! but if The authorities, however, had received no that's the game, have a care, for I shall official notice of the Restoration, and chose certainly take your life." At this the conto go on as if still living under the golden founded gladiator stood aghast, and staring sway of the second Protector. at the absurd apparition before him, cried out, amid the jeers of the mob, “Who is it? there were but two in England that could match me! It must be Goffe, Whalley, or the Devil!" And so it proved, for it was Goffe. A story is told of one of the regicides, while living at Cambridge, which deserves preservation, as it not only illustrates the open manner in which they went to and fro, but also shows how well exercised were the soldiers of Cromwell in military accom- In November, came out the Act of Inplishments. A fencing-master had appear- demnity, by which it appeared that Goffe ed at Boston, challenging any man in the and Whalley were not included in the amcolonies to play at swords with him; and nesty which covered a multitude of sins. It this bravado he repeated for several days, was nevertheless far in February before the from a stage of Thespian simplicity, erected governor had entered upon even a formal in a public part of the town. One day, as inquiry of his council, as to what he should the mountebank was proclaiming his defi- do with the fugitives; a formality which, ance, to the terror and admiration of a empty as it was, must have occasioned their crowd of bystanders, a country-bred fellow, abrupt departure from Massachusetts. At as it seemed, made his appearance in the New Haven, a concentrated Puritanism assembly, accepting the challenge, and press- seems to have offered them a much safer ing to the encounter with no other wea- asylum;* and as a brother-in-law of Whalponry than a cheese done up in a napkin for ley's had lately held a kind of pastoral diga shield, and a broomstick, well charged nity in that place, it is not improbable that with puddle water, which he flourished with they received pledges of protection, should Quixotic effect as a sword. The shouts of they choose it for their eity of refuge. One the rabble, and the confusion of the chal- now goes from Boston to New Haven, by lenger, may well be imagined; but the railroad and steamer, in less than a day; countryman, throwing himself into position, but in those times it was very good travellustily defied the man of foils to come on. ling which brought them to their Alsatia in A sharp command to be gone with his non- less than a fortnight. There they were sense, was all the notice which the other received as saints and confessors; and Dawould vouchsafe; but the rustic insisted on venport, the strait-laced pastor of the colohaving satisfaction, and so stubbornly did ny, seems to have taken them under his he persist in brandishing his broomstick, especial patronage. He seems to have been and opposing his cheese, that the gladiator, a kind of provincial Hugh Peters, though in a towering fury, at last drove at him he was not without his virtues: and there desperately enough. The thrust was very was far more fear of him before the eyes of coolly received in the soft and savory shield the local authorities, than there was of of the countryman, who instantly repaid it King Charles and his Council. His Maby a dexterous daub with his broom, soak-jesty was in fact completely browbeaten and ing the beard and whiskers of the swords- discomfited, when his warrant was afterman with its odorous contents. A second and more furious pass at the rustic was par-i * Holmes's American Annals. |