(Part 01)
Montague Beaumont was only 25 years old when he took up the royalist cause once again and followed Charles II in the third English Civil War.
Montague, Monty to his friends, was a strong man, straight backed and powerful with a square jaw and long chestnut brown hair and was a natural horseman.
He was not a soldier either by nature or profession, he was a farmer and content to be so.
But he had lost his father and brother fighting for Charles the first, so it was only a matter of time before he joined the fray which he did when he turned 20 and he was more soldier than farmer for the next five years.
And he was still committed to the cause when fortunes led to the opposing forces meeting at the Battle of Worcester on the 3rd of September 1651.
However all did not go well and the Royalists were forced to retreat into Worcester.
Montague rode for the Earl of Cleveland’s horse regiment but the Royalists were heavily outnumbered and although every hedgerow and copse was contested by the stubborn Royalists, Fleetwood's forces could not be held at bay.
Once in the town, Charles II removed his armour and found a fresh mount and he attempted to rally his troops but it was to no avail.
And Cromwell's eventually repelled, the last desperate attempt of the Royalists forces to break out of the town.
Inside Worcester, Beaumont lost his mount in a desperate Royalist cavalry charge down Sidbury Street and High Street, led by the Earl of Cleveland and Major Careless amongst others, which allowed King Charles to escape the city by St. Martin's Gate.
After 3 long hours and all attempts to break out having been repelled and realising all was lost, Beaumont took the opportunity to make good his own escape, and he changed his clothes and headed on foot in the Kings wake.
As darkness came on and the defences of the city were stormed from three sides.
Victory went to the parliamentarians and most of the few thousand Royalists who escaped during the night were easily captured.
Only a handful evaded capture, Charles II escaped, after many adventures, including one famous incident where he hid from a Parliamentarian patrol in an oak tree in the grounds of Boscobel House but eventually he reached the safety of France.
With Charles out of reach of Cromwell’s clutches, and with Derby condemned to death, Beaumont became his highest priority.
Montague knew that if he was caught he would meet the same fate as the Earl of Derby who was executed after Worcester,
Best case he could expect was to be deported to New England, or the West Indies to work for landowners as indentured labour.
Neither option appealed to him.
On the 16th of October, about the time Charles II was landing in Normandy, Montague arrived in Downshire on the back of a farm cart.
There were still Royalist sympathizers to be found, if you knew where to look and how to read the signs but there were also enemies everywhere.
So he worked his way across the county from village to village and farm to farm, on the lookout for friends and all the while being wary of spies.
It was his intention to work his way through the county to the coast at Sharpington or Pepperstock Bay and then take a boat across the channel to join his King in France.
But in early November he was discovered while staying in Childean with a Cavalier family and he had to fight his way out, his host Richard was killed in the skirmish while he killed two of the Roundheads and made his escape on one of their horses with the rest of the troop of roundheads in hot pursuit.
His only hope to evade capture was to reach the sanctuary of the Dancingdean Forest.
His stolen mount carried him to the outskirts of Shallowfield before its legs collapsed beneath it and it threw him.
He lay winded in the grass and could so easily have stayed there but he was made of stronger stuff.
For two months following the Battle of Worcester he had been fleeing the parliamentarian forces and he was completely exhausted but he was not prepared for death or deportation so he picked himself up and ran flat out for the tree line and he hoped freedom.
(Part 02)
Montague was not restricted by riding boots, helmets or breastplates so once he was in the forest he was hoping to give them the slip, as the leather jackets would not find it easygoing chasing him down.
He reached the trees but after ten minutes despite their handicap they were giving good chase as the effects of two months on the run had left him fatigued and they were closing in on him.
Montague could hear them behind him clearer and clearer, yard by yard, calling loudly to each other as they crashed through the forest and ahead of him there was the sound of rushing water.
It was a cold day but he was sweating profusely with the exertion as he reached the waterfall.
He moved upstream about 20 yards until he found an easier place to cross but he couldn’t dwell to long as the Leather Jackets were hot on his heels.
“This way” he heard one of his pursuers call when he was half way across and he lost his footing and ended up knee deep in freezing water.
Montague waded to the other side and clambered out, two steps later her was down again and this time as he got back to his feet he ripped the buckle off one of his shoes.
He didn’t notice nor hesitate though and set off at a run, a few minutes later he paused briefly by a great oak.
“Oiy” a voice called in a hoarse whisper
He looked around but could see nothing and so prepared to run again
“Up hear” the hoarse whispering voice said
He looked up and could see nothing above him but the autumn canopy.
“Hear” the voice repeated
And then he saw her, a young woman about his age, give or take a year or two with a mass of unruly red hair and vivid green eyes looking down at him.
She threw down a rope of sorts, made from grass and ivy vines.
“Quick” she urged him.
So he quickly climbed up the rope the ten feet or so to where she was, and she quickly raised the makeshift rope again.
“Thank you” he said and settled down in the hollow crook between the oak boughs.
“Hush” she retorted and settled down beside him and they sat in silence as his Leather Jacket pursuers were crossing the falls and by the commotion and the cursing it was obvious than more than one of them fell into the water as he had done.
A lot of cursing followed along with pledges to make sure he paid in pain for their discomfiture.
“He came this way” one of them called “he lost a shoe buckle”
“Damn” Montague said as he looked at his boots
“Quiet” the wild looking young woman said and punched him
“Ouch” he muttered and rubbed his sore arm.
Looking at her he wouldn’t have expected her to hit so hard.
She was only a small thing and was all skin and bone but it turned out she was as strong as an ox.
The Roundheads blundered about for another hour or so searching for him, until darkness began to fall and they wandered off back towards Shallowfield.
They crossed the falls again on their return and there were more splashes and curses.
When he couldn’t hear them anymore Montague got up to leave.
“No not yet” she said “wait for your eyes to grow accustomed to the darkness”
He thought for a moment and realizing the logic of her words he sat down again.
“My name is Montague Beaumont” he said “My friends call me Monty”
“I’m Bessie” she said “Bessie Goodwin, they call me wild Bess”
Bess was a local woodsman’s daughter who all but lived alone in a shack in the woods and was thought by most people to have gone feral.
She wore breeches and boots and hunted the woods like it was her larder.
After about fifteen minutes Bess said they could safely climb down from the oak.
Despite the fact his eyes had grown accustomed to the light Montague was completely disoriented and had it not been for Bess he would have wandered in the wrong direction and straight into the clutches of the parliamentarians.
“This way soldier boy” she said and headed off into the dark.
“Ok wait for me” he said and rushed after her.
Half an hour later they arrived at her ramshackle shack which though not stylish was warm, dry and well provisioned.
After a hot meal of a stew of unspecified meat beside a warm fire he was in no hurry to get on his way again, so he asked
“Could I stay here for a day or two until I get my strength back?”
“Ok just for a day or two” she agreed
He stayed with her for 9 years until Charles II returned to England and Montague once more stood at his side and was with him when he was restored to the throne and as a reward for his loyalty he was granted the Earldom of Dancingdean and his wife became Lady Bess.
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