Prince Charles and some friends stood on the tower of Worcester Cathedral watching the course of the battle, and when they saw they had lost the day they rushed down in great haste, and mounting their horses rode away as fast as they could, almost blocking themselves in the gateway in their hurry.  When they reached the village of Ombersley, about ten miles distant, they hastily refreshed themselves at the old timber-built inn, which in honour of the event was afterwards named the “King’s Arms.”  The ceiling, over the spot where Charles stood, is still ornamented with his coat of arms, including the fleur-de-lys of France, and in the great chimney where the smoke disappears above the ingle-nook is a hiding-place capable of holding four men on each side of the chimney, and so carefully constructed that no one would ever dream that a man could hide there without being smothered by the smoke.  The smoke, however, is drawn by the draught past the hiding-place, from which there would doubtless be a secret passage to the chamber above, which extended from one side of the inn to the other.  In a glass case there was at the time of our visit a cat and a rat—­the rat standing on its hind legs and facing the cat—­but both animals dried up and withered like leather, until they were almost flat, the ribs of the cat showing plainly on its skin.  The landlord gave us their history, from which it appeared that it had become necessary to place a stove in a back kitchen and to make an entrance into an old flue to enable the smoke from the stove-pipe to be carried up the large chimney.  The agent of the estate to which the inn belonged employed one of his workmen, nicknamed “Holy Joe,” to do the work, who when he broke into the flue-could see with the light of his candle something higher up the chimney.  He could not tell what it was, nor could the landlord, whom “Joe” had called to his assistance, but it was afterwards discovered to be the cat and the rat that now reposed in the glass case.  It was evident that the rat had been pursued by the cat and had escaped by running up the narrow flue, whither it had been followed by the cat, whose head had become jammed in the flue.  The rat had then turned round upon its pursuer, and was in the act of springing upon it when both of them had been instantly asphyxiated by the fumes in the chimney.

With the exception of some slight damage to the rat, probably caused in the encounter, they were both almost perfect, and an expert who had examined them declared they must have been imprisoned there quite a hundred years before they could have been reduced to the condition in which they were found by “Holy Joe”!

The proprietors of the hostelries patronised by royalty always made as much capital out of the event as possible, and even the inn at Charmouth displayed the following advertisement after the King’s visit: 

  Here in this House was lodged King Charles. 
    Come in, Sirs, you may venture;
  For here is entertainment good
    For Churchman or Dissenter.