wounded on the field of battle; the earls of Derby, Rothes, Cleveland,
Kelly, and Lauderdale; the lords Sinclair, Kenmure, and Grandison; and the
generals Leslie, Massey, Middleton, and Montgomery, were made prisoners, at
different times and in separate places. But the most interesting inquiry
regarded the fortune of the young king. Though the parliament offered[a] a
reward of one thousand pounds for his person, and denounced the penalties
of treason against those who should afford him shelter; though parties of
horse and foot scoured the adjacent counties in search of so valuable a
prize; though the magistrates received orders to arrest every unknown
person, and to keep a strict watch on the sea-ports in their neighbourhood,
yet no trace of his flight, no clue to his retreat, could be discovered.
Week after week passed

[Footnote 1: Thus the duke of Buckingham was conducted by one Mathews, a
carpenter, to Bilstrop, and thence to Brooksby, the seat of Lady Villiers,
in Leicestershire; Lord Talbot reached his father's house at Longford in
time to conceal himself in a close place in one of the out-houses. His
pursuers found his horse yet saddled, and searched for him during four or
five days in vain. May was hidden twenty-one days in a hay-mow, belonging
to Bold, a husbandman, at Chessardine, during all which time a party of
soldiers was quartered in the house.--Boscobel, 35-37. Of the prisoners,
eight suffered death, by judgment of a court-martial sitting at Chester.
One of these was the gallant earl of Derby, who pleaded that quarter had
been granted to him by Captain Edge, and quarter ought to be respected by
a court-martial. It was answered that quarter could be granted to enemies
only, not to traitors. He offered to surrender his Isle of Man in exchange
for his life, and petitioned for "his grace the lord general's, and the
parliament's mercy." But his petition was not delivered by Lenthall before
it was too late. It was read in the house on the eve of his execution,
which took place at Bolton, in Lancashire, Oct. 15, 1651.--State Trials, v.