ACT I.

THE KING.


In 1649, when Charles II. was uncertain as to what steps he should take
on the death of his father, it was considered that the best and safest
place for his temporary residence was the Castle at S. Helier, in
Jersey, known by the name of Queen Elizabeth, where he had already lived
for a short time on an earlier occasion. Founded by order of the
Sovereign whose name it bore, it stands on a rocky islet, once a
promontory of the mainland, but long since insulated by every high tide.
At low water it communicated with the town by a natural causeway of
shingly rock called "The Bridge," commanded by its own guns. On the
Western curve of the bay, nearly two miles off as the bird flies, was
the small town of S. Aubin, guarded by a smaller fortress. The entire
bay was protected, by the batteries of these two places, against the
entrance of hostile shipping. Circumstances, not now entirely traceable
but connected probably with defensive considerations, had taken its
ancient preponderance from Gorey, on the eastern coast, which had once
been the seat of administration; and thus commenced the importance of S.
Helier, though in nothing like the present activity of its quays and
wharves, or the throng of its streets and markets. Above the head of
the "Bridge," indeed, the view from the North face of the Castle met
with no buildings till it struck upon the Town Church, an ancient but
plain structure of the fourteenth century, whose square central tower,
although by no means of lofty elevation, formed a landmark for mariners
out at sea by reason of a beacon that was always kept burning there by