Victorian engraving showing Monmouth's capture by Sir William Portman, 8th July, 1685.

Monmouth.. tried in vain to elude the troops who beat through the fields till darkness fell, and after midnight when the baying of the bloodhounds had died away, Monmouth lay down in a ditch by an ash tree and slept a free man for the last time. At 7am the sleeping Monmouth was found and soon afterwards Sir William Portman rode in to silence the cries of 'Shoot him, shoot him!'. A contemporary account records, 'He laid hands on him as his prisoner, and so preserv'd him from all violence and rudeness' Source: Orchard and the Portmans by T. W. Mayberry, 1986