THE GOVERNMENT INTELLIGENCE DEPARTMENT.
HAVING followed the history of the plotters and their doings, to the
point when everything was ready for action, we have now to inquire what,
in the meantime, those were about for whose destruction such notable
preparations were making, and whether in truth they were, as we are
assured, wrapped in a sense of false security, and altogether
unconscious of the signs and tokens that should have awakened their
suspicion and alarm.
When, by the aid of such evidence as remains to us, we turn to examine
the facts of the case, we discover in them, it must be confessed, no
symptoms whatever of supineness or lethargy. It appears, on the
contrary, that throughout the period when the government are supposed to
have been living in a fool's paradise, and tranquilly assuming that all
was well, they were in reality busily at work through their emissaries
and informers, prying into all the doings of the recusant Catholics,
receiving frequent intimation of all that was undertaken, or even
projected, and, apparently, regulating the main features of a
treasonable conspiracy, which can have been no other than the Powder
Plot itself, determining, in particular, what individuals should be
implicated therein.
In April, 1604, at the very time when we hear of the Plot as being
hatched, a letter was addressed to Sir Thomas Challoner, an official
frequently mixed up with business of this kind, by one Henry
Wright,[200] reporting the proceedings of a subordinate agent, by name
Davies, whom he styles a "discoverer,"[201] then engaged in working a
Catholic treason, with the special object of incriminating priests.
Davies has offered to "set," or mark down,[202] over threescore of
these, but Wright has told him that so many are not required, and that
he will satisfy his employers if he implicate twenty, provided they be
"most principal Jesuits and seminary priests," and therewithal has given
him thirteen or fourteen names that will serve the required purpose.
Davies replies, "that by God's grace he will absolutely do it ere
long."[203]
That the treason in question was none other than the Gunpowder Plot
there can be no question, unless indeed we are to say that the
authorities were engaged in fabricating a bogus conspiracy for which
there was no foundation whatever in fact. It was not the way of
statesmen of the period, when on the track of sedition, to relinquish
the pursuit till they had sifted it to the bottom, and at this juncture,
especially, every shred of evidence regarding Catholics and their
conduct was threshed out to the uttermost. In consequence, we are able
to say with certainty, that besides the enterprise of Catesby and his
associates, there was no other conspiracy of any kind on foot. We have,
moreover, already seen that the very same point thus by anticipation
represented as all important, is that which after the "discovery" every
nerve was strained to establish, namely, the complicity of the Catholic
clergy. If we had no more than this internal evidence, it would
abundantly suffice to assure us that the conspiracy thus sedulously
watched was the same as that miraculously "discovered" a year and a half
later.
But we are not left to such inferences alone. In March, 1606, we find
Wright applying to the minister for a reward on account of his services
"in discovering villainous practices," thus indicating that by this time
those which he had been tracking had been brought to light. More
explicit still is a memorial presented to the king, at a later date, on
his behalf. This is entitled--"Touching Wright and his services
performed _in the damnable plot of the Powder treason_." King James is
reminded that Chief Justice Popham and Sir Thomas Challoner had a hand
in the discovery of the Powder, and this by means of information
supplied by Wright, "for two years space almost" before his Majesty
interpreted the famous letter to Lord Monteagle, "like an angel of God."
This information Popham and Challoner had from time to time communicated
to his Majesty, "whose hand Wright hath in testimony of his services in
the matter."[204]
In the same month of April, 1604, was supplied another piece of
information, singularly interesting and important,[205] in which were
detailed the particulars of a design amongst the Catholics at home and
abroad. Much, in fact the bulk, of the information given, is seen, in
the light of our present knowledge, to be purely fictitious, affording a
good example of the "sophistications" which, as Cecil himself
complained, his agents were wont to mingle with their intelligence. The
design in question was represented as being of the most serious and
secret nature, the papists thinking that it "must now be so handled and
carried as the great cause may lose no reputation, or if any suspicion
should grow in the state, or any come in question therefore, the main
point might never come to light;" the said "main point" being of course
the complicity of the Catholic clergy.
What invests this document with singular importance is the fact that we
hear of it again. In April, 1606, it was quoted for the benefit of
Parliament by the Attorney General, Sir E. Coke, and explicitly as
having reference to the Gunpowder Plot, forming part of the evidence
adduced by him to secure the attainder of persons accused of being
partakers in that treason.[206] It thus affords a proof, on the
authority of the government itself, that eighteen months before the
conspiracy was "discovered," intelligence regarding it had been received
and was being attended to.
[Illustration: A VIEW OF THE HOUSE OF PEERS, 1755.]
This is, however, by no means the only information of which we find
traces. Amongst the Cecil papers at Hatfield is a letter dated December
20th, 1605, addressed to the Earl of Salisbury by one Thomas Coe, who
claims to have previously forwarded to his Majesty "the primary
intelligence of these late dangerous treasons," upon which communication
the historian Lodge observes,[207] "It should seem then that the famous
letter transmitted to James by Lord Monteagle, for the right
construction of which that Prince's penetration hath been so highly
extolled by some historians, was not the only previous intelligence
communicated to him of the Gunpowder Treason."
Meanwhile the officers of the government, in all parts, appear to have
been no less alert than was their wont. On the 9th of January, 1604-5,
for instance, Sir Thomas Parry writes from Paris,[208] inclosing a note
from an informer at Dieppe, concerning an English Catholic returning
from Italy and Spain with letters for Fathers Garnet and Oldcorne, and a
cipher of three lines for a lawyer at Douay, and although the messenger
has contrived to give him the slip, he is able to send particulars
concerning his personal appearance, and the locality in London where he
is likely to be found. On the 25th of the same month, Cecil replies to
Parry[209] concerning priests and their doings, and makes the valuable
admission that their proceedings are always known to him by means of
false brethren, though, he adds, these informers always add to their
intelligence "sophistications" of their own, a fact which must not be
lost sight of in studying the reports of such folk. We hear
particularly of informations supplied by the priests Bagshawe and Cecil,
by Captain Turner, Charles Paget, and sundry others.
At the beginning of October, 1605, we make the acquaintance of another
notable informer. On the first of the month, William Willaston, then
engaged on a commission in France in connection with a proposed
commercial treaty, writes to Cecil from Paris[210] concerning a Catholic
design attributed chiefly to priests and Jesuits, who have assurance
that their friends in England, who are many and of good sort, intend "to
kindle a fire in many corners of our land, and a rebellion in Ireland,"
and that these matters be almost grown to a head, "some of their fingers
itching to be set to work." Willaston adds, "there is a particular
irreconcilable desperate malice against your Honour's person, which is
principally the cause I make bold to write unto your Lordship. You have
yet the papists in your hands, and are masters; if you let them increase
and grow so insolent, assuredly it will come to pass as to the King of
Israel, who having overthrown Benhadab ..." and so on.
On October 14th, Willaston again writes from Rouen[211] "about some
matters pretended by our Romish Catholics." The party, he says, "who"
has given light into this business "is one George Southwaick, well-known
to many of your Lordship's followers." This Southwaick, he holds to be
"very honest;" he is going to England with sundry priests and others,
and upon landing will at once communicate with the authorities and have
his comrades arrested. "Southwaick himself," adds Willaston, "must be
taken as well as the others, for he desireth not to be known to have
given any information against the rest. If it please your Lordship to
take order for his imprisonment apart, that conference privately may be
had with him, until such time as shall be thought fit to deliver him, he
can give you good directions for many matters, and may stand your honour
in stead for such purposes."
There follows a notable suggestion: "If your Lordship would be pleased
to set some man to win the Nuncio of the Pope his secretary in Paris,
you should receive very direct and sound instructions from him." The
writer goes on to speak of an intended rebellion in England, and the
kindling of a fire there, and dutifully concludes, "God grant they touch
not the person of the King nor of his children."
On the 27th of October, nine days before the "discovery," Southwaick
himself, now in England, writes to Cecil,[212] urging that the impending
arrest of priests and others should be deferred, and that for better
management of "the business, and for the better and more substantial
manifestation thereof," he ventures to suggest that "more scope of time
would make the service of more worth." Moreover, he gives warning of
preparations for trouble in the shires, in connection with "their plot,"
and finally promises, "your Honour shall not only have knowledge of all
such as are any way intercepted in the same, but also knowledge of the
end of their whole purpose, and withal be certain of their meeting here
in London, where I do not doubt to apprehend forty priests, with many
great of name, at mass, in good speed of their great intent."
On the morning of the 5th of November itself, evidently before receiving
news that the final blow had been struck, Southwaick writes to Levinus
Munck, Cecil's private secretary.[213] He excuses himself for recent
silence on the ground that he could not without prejudice to "the
business" have communicated with his employers. "The parties," he
declares, "have had, ever since I saw you, such obscure meetings, such
mutable purposes, such uncertain resolutions, as hath made me ride both
day and night, as well in foul weather as fair, omitting no
opportunities, lest I should not effect what I have by the weight of my
credit and the engagement of my duty and reputation propounded to my
honourable Lord." He farther begs that nothing may be done that might
disclose his true character to his intended victims, and concludes by
declaring that, if he be not much mistaken, he is about "a singular
service."
If such letters proved nothing more, they would abundantly serve to
discredit the idea that a government which conducted its operations in
such a fashion could be hoodwinked by such clumsy contrivances as those
of the cellar and the mine.
Five days later,[214] Southwaick again writes to Munck, inclosing a note
of the priests who have had meetings in Paris, or have been written to
in England. The Ambassador (in Paris) will, he says, bear witness that,
although unable to particularize, he had given notice two months since
that there was a plot brewing. He adds a significant hint, the like of
which we have already seen: "Should I chance to be apprehended, I will
rest myself upon my honourable Lord."[215]
Meanwhile the English ambassadors abroad were no less active and
vigilant than the informers at home, and while clearly aware that there
was some danger on foot, never doubted that the king's government would
not be caught napping.
On the 9th of October, Sir Thomas Edmondes wrote to Cecil from
Brussels[216] to warn him of suspicious symptoms in the Low Countries;
and on the following day Cecil wrote to Edmondes[217] expressing
apprehensions of trouble from the Jesuits abroad. On the same day,
October 10th, Sir Thomas Parry wrote from Paris to the secretary,[218]
of a petition which the Catholics were preparing against the meeting of
Parliament, "and some further designs upon refusal;" and in another
letter informed Edmondes:[219] "somewhat is at present in hand amongst
these desperate hypocrites, which I trust God shall divert, by the
vigilant care of his Majesty's faithful servants and friends abroad, and
prudence of his council at home."
That such confidence was not misplaced is shown by Cecil's assurance to
Sir Thomas Parry,[220] mentioned above, that the proceedings of the
priests were never unknown to Government.
Amongst the papers at Hatfield is a curious note, anonymous and
undated, giving information of a plot involving murder and treason,
which, like the letter to Monteagle, simulates rather too obviously the
workmanship of an illiterate person, and artfully insinuates that the
design in question is undertaken in the name of religion, and chiefly
favoured by the priests.[221]
Another remarkable document is preserved in the same collection. This is
a letter written to Sir Everard Digby, June 11th, 1605, and treating of
an otter hunt to be undertaken when the hay shall be cut. It has,
however, been endorsed by Salisbury, "Letter written to Sir Everard
Digby--Powder Treason."[222] Not only is it hard to see how the terms
of the document lend themselves to such an interpretation, but the date
at which it was written was fully three months prior to Digby's
initiation in the conspiracy. The idea is certainly suggested that, far
from being passive and indolent, the authorities were sedulously seeking
pretexts to entangle as many as possible of those "great of name,"
concerning whom we have already heard from one of their informers. This
much, at any rate, seems clear. Those at the centre of this complex web
of espionage, to whom were addressed all these informations and
admonitions, cannot have been, as they protested somewhat overmuch, in a
state of careless inactivity, depending for security only upon the
protection of the Almighty, "who," as the secretary afterwards piously
declared, "blessed us in our slumber [and] will not forsake us now that
we are awake."[223]
The slumber would at least appear not to have been dreamless. On the one
hand, the secretary was evidently much exercised by a threatened
_rapprochement_ between his royal master and Pope Clement VIII., who,
through a Scotch Catholic gentleman, Sir James Lindsay, had sent a
friendly message to King James, which had elicited a courteous and
almost cordial reply.[224] The significance of this Cecil strenuously
endeavoured, in a letter to the Duke of Lenox,[225] to explain away, and
in February, 1604-5, we find him assuring the Archbishop of York with an
earnestness somewhat suspicious,[226] "I love not to procure or yield
any toleration; a matter which I well know no creature living durst
propound to our religious Sovereign." For himself, he thus declares: "I
will be much less than I am, or rather nothing at all, before I shall
become an instrument of such a miserable change." Nevertheless, on the
17th of April following, he was fain to acknowledge, in writing to
Parry,[227] that the news of Pope Clement's death had much eased him in
his mind.
It would, however, appear that the spectre of possible toleration still
haunted him, and that he felt it necessary to commit the king to a
course of severity. In a minute of September 12th, 1605, addressed to
the same ambassador, which has been corrected and amended with an amount
of care sufficiently testifying to the importance of the subject,[228]
after speaking of "the plots and business of the priests," and the
tendency of Englishmen going abroad "in this time of peace" to become
Catholics, he thus continues: "Only this is it wherein my own heart
receiveth comfort, that we live under a most religious and understanding
Prince, who sticketh not to publish, as well in his own particular, as
in the form of his government, how contrary that religion is to his
resolution, and how far he will be from ever gracing [it]." He goes on
to declare that nothing will so avail to make his Majesty withdraw his
countenance from any man as such "falling away."
About the same time as this was written, we are told by a writer, almost
a contemporary,[229] that a dependent of Cecil's warned a Catholic
gentleman, by name Buck, of a "wicked design" which his master had in
hand against the papists.
On the 17th of October, more than a week before the first hint of danger
is said to have been breathed, we find the minister writing to Sir
Thomas Edmondes, at Brussels,[230] in terms which certainly appear to
couple together the growing danger of conversions to Catholicism, of
which we have heard above, and the remedy soon to be supplied by the new
policy which the discovery of the Plot so effectively established. He
speaks of the "insolencies" of the priests and Jesuits, who are doing
much injury by infecting with their poison "every youth that cometh
amongst them;" ominously adding, "which liberty must, for one cause or
another, be retrenched."
There can be no doubt that the issue of the Gunpowder Plot was eminently
calculated to work such an effect; and even more would seem to have
been anticipated from it than was actually realized, for the secretary,
we are told, promised King James that in consequence of it not a single
Jesuit should remain in England.
In the accounts supplied to us as to the manner of the "discovery," we
obtain much interesting information from the utterances of the
government itself. In studying these we cannot fail to notice an evident
effort to reconcile two conflicting interests. On the one hand, that the
king and the nation should be properly impressed with a sense of their
marvellous deliverance, it was essential to represent the catastrophe as
having been imminent, which could not be unless the preparations for it
had been altogether unsuspected; and it was likewise desirable to
magnify the divine sagacity of the monarch, which had been the
instrument of Providence to avert a disaster otherwise inevitable. On
the other hand, however, it should not be made to appear that those to
whose keeping the public safety was intrusted had shown themselves
culpably negligent or incompetent; and it had therefore to be insinuated
that, after all, they were not without "sufficient advertisement" of
danger, and even of danger specifically connected with the actual
conspirators, and directed against the Parliament. But, again, lest such
information should appear suspiciously accurate, the actual plotters had
to be merged in a larger body of their co-religionists, and their design
to be represented in vague and general terms. At the time, no doubt,
this was effective enough. Now however that we know, by the light of
subsequent investigations, who exactly were engaged, and what was in
hand, it is possible to estimate these declarations at their true
value.[231]
Except with the aid of such an explanation as this, it seems impossible
to understand the endless inconsistencies and contradictions of the
official narrative. This we have in four forms, all coming to us on the
highest authority, but addressed to different audiences, and hopelessly
at variance upon almost every point. One is that given to the world as
the "King's Book,"[232] containing, as Mr. Jardine tells us, the version
which it was desired that the general public should accept. A second was
furnished by Cecil himself to the ambassadors at Madrid and Brussels,
and the Lord Deputy in Ireland,[233] and a third to the ambassador at
Paris.[234] We have likewise the minute of November 7th, already
mentioned as perhaps intended for the information of the Privy Council,
which, although it has seemingly served as the basis of the story told
in the "King's Book," contradicts that story in various not unimportant
particulars.
We shall afterwards have to examine in some detail the divergencies of
these several narratives: at present we are concerned only with the
intimation which they afford of a previous knowledge of the Plot on the
part of the government. In the "King's Book"--which was not only to be
disseminated broadcast at home, but to be translated and spread abroad,
and, moreover, to be suited to the taste of its supposed author--the
preternatural acuteness of the monarch is extolled in terms of most
preposterous flattery, and his secretary is represented as altogether
incredulous of danger, and unwilling to be convinced even by his royal
master's wonderful interpretation of the mysterious warning.
Nevertheless, not only is mention parenthetically introduced of the
minister's "customable and watchful care of the king and State, boiling
within him," of his laying up these things in his heart, "like the
Blessed Virgin Mary," and being unable to rest till he had followed the
matter farther,--but it is dexterously intimated that, for all his
hardness of belief, he was sufficiently well informed before the warning
came to hand, and that "this accident did put him in mind of divers
advertisements he had received from beyond the seas, wherewith he had
acquainted as well the king himself, as divers of his Privy Councillors,
concerning some business the Papists were in, both at home and abroad,
making combination amongst them for some combination against this
Parliament time," their object being to approach the king with a
petition for toleration, "which should be delivered in some such order,
and so well backed, as the king should be loth to refuse their
requests; like the sturdy beggars craving alms with one open hand, but
carrying a stone in the other, in case of refusal."
As prepared for the Privy Council, the account, though substantially the
same, was somewhat more explicit. The secretary was fully aware, so the
Lords were told, "that some practices might be doubted," and he "had,
any time these three months, acquainted the King, and some of his
Majesty's inward Counsellors, that the priests and laymen abroad and at
home were full of the papists of this kingdom, seeking still to lay some
_plot_ for procuring at this Parliament exercise of their religion."
In his letter to the ambassadors Cecil was able to speak more plainly,
for this document was not to meet the eye of James. Accordingly, he not
only acknowledges that on seeing the Monteagle letter he at once divined
the truth, and understood all about the powder, and moreover reverses
the parts played by his Majesty and himself--making the former
incredulous in spite of what he himself could urge in support of his
opinion--but he goes on to give his previous information a far more
definite complexion: "Not but that I had sufficient advertisement that
most of these that now are fled [_i.e._ the conspirators]--being all
notorious Recusants--with many others of that kind, had a practice in
hand for some stir this Parliament." He, moreover, describes the
plotters, in terms already cited, as "gentlemen spent in their fortunes
and fit for all alterations."
In view of all this it is quite impossible to believe the account given
of themselves by those who were responsible for the public safety, and
to suppose that they were not only so neglectful of their duty, but so
incredibly foolish, and so unlike themselves, as to permit a gross and
palpable peril to approach unnoticed. If, on the other hand, as appears
to be certain, the information with which they were supplied were
copious and minute, erring by excess far more than by defect, if,
instead of lethargy and carelessness, we find in their conduct, at every
stage of the proceedings, evidence of the extremest vigilance and of
constant activity, and if they held it of prime importance to disguise
the facts, and were willing to incur the charge of having been asleep at
their posts, rather than let it be thought that they knew what they did,
it can scarcely be doubted that the history of the Gunpowder Plot given
to the world was in its essential features what they wished it to
be.[235]
A practical illustration of the methods freely employed by statesmen of
the period will serve to throw fuller light upon this portion of our
inquiry. In the service of the government was one Thomas Phelippes,[236]
by trade a "decipherer," who was employed to "make English" of
intercepted letters written in cipher. His services had been largely
used in connection with Mary, Queen of Scots, some of whose letters he
thus interpreted, having it in his power, as Mr. Tytler remarks, to
garble or falsify them at pleasure.[237] Moreover, to serve the purposes
of his masters, as he himself acknowledges,[238] he had upon occasion
forged one side of a correspondence, in order to induce the person
addressed to commit himself in reply.[239] At the time of the Gunpowder
Plot, however, Phelippes had himself fallen under suspicion, on account
of a correspondence with Hugh Owen, of whom we shall hear elsewhere.
Accordingly, an attempt was made to hoist him with his own petard, and
another agent, named Barnes, was employed by Cecil to write a letter, as
coming from Phelippes (who was then in England) and carry it to Owen in
Flanders in order to draw him out. At Dover, however, Barnes was
arrested, being mistaken for another man for whom a watch was being
kept. Thereupon, his papers being seized and sent to the Earl of
Northampton, who appears not to have been in the secret of this matter,
Cecil was obliged to arrest Phelippes at once, as though the letter were
genuine, instead of waiting, as he had intended, in order to worm out
more.
The story of this complex and crooked business is frankly told by Cecil
himself in a letter to Edmondes, English ambassador at Brussels, which,
after the above abstract, will be sufficiently intelligible.[240]
"As for Barnes, he is now returning again into Flanders, with many vows
and promises to continue to do good service. As he was at Dover with my
pass, carrying a letter from Philipps to Owen (of Barnes own
handwriting, wherewith I was before acquainted), he was suddenly stayed
by order from the Lord Warden, upon suspicion that he was one Acton, a
traitor of the late conspiracy.... Whereupon, his papers and letters
being sent to my Lord of Northampton, I thought fit not to defer any
longer the calling of Philipps into question; which till then I had
forborne, hoping by Barnes his means to have discovered some further
matter than before I could do."
FOOTNOTES:
[200] He appears to have been no relation of John and Christopher
Wright, the conspirators.
[201] Davies was employed in other affairs of a similar nature. See
_Dom. James I._, xix. 83, I (P.R.O.).
[202] Cf. a "setter dog."
[203] See the full text of Wright's letter, Appendix G.
[204] See the text of the memorial, Appendix G.
[205] Copy in the P.R.O. _Dom. James I._ vii. 86, and xx. 52. The
informer's name is given in the latter, viz., Ralph Ratcliffe.
[206] It was likewise cited in the interrogatories prepared for the
Jesuit Thomas Strange (Brit. Mus. _MSS. Add._ 6178, 74) in November,
1605, and in this case also as treating of the Gunpowder Plot and no
other.
[207] _Illustrations_, iii. 301.
[208] P.R.O. _France_, b. 132.
[209] _Ibid._
[210] P.R.O. _France_, bundle 132.
[211] _Ibid._ f. 273 b.
[212] Hatfield MSS. 112, n. 141.
[213] P.R.O. _Gunpowder Plot Book_, 16.
[214] November 10th, 1605, _Dom. James I._ xvi. 44.
[215] At a later period (July 20th, 1606) we find that Southwaick ("or
Southwell") had lost favour and was warned by Salisbury to leave the
country. "I hold him," says the Earl, "to be a very impostor." (_To
Edmondes_, Phillipps MS. f. 165.)
[216] Stowe MSS., 168, 39.
[217] _Ibid._ 40.
[218] _Ibid._ 42.
[219] Birch, _Historical View_, p. 234.
[220] P.R.O. _France_, bundle 132, January 25th, 1604-5.
[221] "Who so evar finds this box of letars let him carry hit to the
Kings magesty: my mastar litel thinks I knows of this, but yn ridinge
wth him that browt the letar to my mastar to a Katholyk gentlemans hows
anward of his way ynto lin konsher [Lincolnshire], he told me al his
purpos, and what he ment to do; and he beinge a prest absolved me and
mad me swar nevar to revel hit to ane man. I confes myself a Katholyk,
and do hate the protystans relygon with my hart, and yit I detest to
consent ethar to murdar or treson. I have blotyd out sartyn nams in the
letars becas I wold not have ethar my mastar or ane of his frends trobyl
aboute this; for by his menes I was mad a goud Katholyk, and I wod to
God the King war a good Katholyk: that is all the harm I wish him; and
let him tak hed what petysons or suplycasons he take of ane man; and I
hop this box will be found by som that will giv hit to the King, hit may
do him good one day. I men not to com to my mastar any moe, but wil
return unto my contry from whens I cam. As for my nam and contry I
consel that; and God make the King a goud Katholyk; and let Ser Robart
Sesil and my lord Cohef Gustyse lok to them selvse." (Printed in
Appendix to _Third Report of Historical MSS. Commission_, p. 148.)
[222] It is signed "G.D.," and was possibly written by a relation of Sir
Everard's.
[223] To Sir H. Bruncard, March 3rd, 1605-6. P.R.O. _Ireland_, vol.
218.
[224] "Instructions to my trusty servant Sir James Lindsay, for answer
to the lettre and Commission brought by him from the Pope unto me."
A^o 1604. (P.R.O. _France_, b. 132.)
In these notes the king explains that the things of greatest import
cannot be written, but have been imparted "by tongue" to the envoy, to
be delivered to his holiness. Moreover he thus charges Lindsay: "You
shall assure him that I shall never be forgetful of the continual proof
I have had of his courtesy and long inclination towards me, and
especially by this his so courteous and unexpected message, which I
shall be careful to requite thankfully by all civil courtesies that
shall be in my power, the particulars whereof I remit likewise to your
declaration." Besides this, he protests that he will ever inviolably
observe two points: first, never to dissemble what he thinks, especially
in matters of conscience; secondly, never to reject reason when he hears
it urged on the other side.
[225] P.R.O. _France_, b. 132.
[226] Lodge, _Illustrations_, iii. 262.
[227] P.R.O. _France_, b. 132.
[228] _Ibid._
[229] _The Politician's Catechism_, 1658.
[230] Birch, _Historical View_, p. 234.
[231] "If the Priestes and Catholickes, so many thousands in England
would have entertayned it, no man can be so malicious and simple to
thinke but there would have been a greater assembly than fourscore [in
the Midlands] to take such an action in hand, and the Council could not
be so winking eyed, but they would have found forth some one or other
culpable, which they could never do, though some of them, most powerable
in it, tendered and racked forth their hatred against us to the
uttermost limites they could extend." _English Protestants' plea_, p.
60.
[232] _Discourse of the manner of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot._
Printed in the Collected Works of King James, by Bishop Mountague, by
Bishop Barlow, in _Gunpowder Treason_, and in Cobbett's _State Trials_,
as an appendix to that of the conspirators.
[233] _I.e._, Cornwallis, Edmondes, and Chichester. The despatch to
Cornwallis is printed in Winwood's _Memorials_, ii. 170.
[234] Sir Thoms Parry, P.R.O. _France_, bundle 132.
[235] Mr. Hepworth Dixon observes (_Her Majesty's Tower_, i. 352,
seventh edition) that a man must have been in no common measure ignorant
of Cecil and Northampton who could dream that such a design could escape
the greatest masters of intrigue alive, and that abundant evidence makes
it clear that the Council were informed of the Plot in almost every
stage, and that their agents dogged the footsteps of those whom they
suspected, taking note of all their proceedings. "It was no part of
Cecil's policy," adds Mr. Dixon, "to step in before the dramatic time."
[236] Often called Phelipps, or Philipps.
[237] _History of Scotland_, iii. 376, note (ed. Eadie). It was on one
of these letters which had been in the hands of Phelippes that Mary was
convicted.
[238] _Dom. James I._ xx. 51. April, 1606.
[239] In the fragment cited above, Phelippes says that Queen Elizabeth
and the Earl of Essex largely availed themselves of this device of his,
and that "My Lord of Salisbury had himself made some use of it in the
Queen's time."
[240] February 12th, 1605-6. (Stowe MSS. 168.)