Sir Everard says, in a letter from the Tower,[347] that, at one of his
examinations, "they did in a Fashion offer me the torture, which I wil
rather indure then hurt any body"; but it was only a threat; for,
although torture was used to priests and Jesuits in connection with the
Gunpowder Plot, it does not[348] appear to have been brought to bear
upon any of the actual conspirators except Guy Fawkes. Lord Dunfermline,
however, strongly urged Salisbury to expose them to it.[349] "Recommends
that the prisoners be confined apart, in darkness, and examined by
torch-light, and that the tortures be slow and at intervals, as being
the most effectual." On the other hand, a tract, printed in 1606,[350]
says of the conspirators, that "in the time of their imprisonment, they
rather feasted with their sins, than fasted with sorrow for them; were
richly apparelled, fared deliciously, and took tobacco out of measure,
with a seeming carelessness of their crime."
[347] _Letters of Sir E. D._, Paper 7.
[348] A modern Jesuit thinks otherwise (see _The Month_, No. 367, p.
8), quoting Cecil's letter to Favat (Brit. Museum MSS. Add. 6178.
fol. 625). "Most of the prisoners have wilfully forsworn that the
priests knew anything in particular, and obstinately refuse to be
accusers of them, _yea, what torture soever they be put to_." Cecil
may have referred to Fawkes only when he mentioned torture; but the
Jesuit Father may be right, and he gives other evidence in support
of his theory.
[349] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 258.
[350] _Somer's Tracts_, Vol. ii. p. 113.
Sir Everard had not been many days in the Tower before the Government
had a search made at Harrowden, the house of his young friend, Lord
Vaux, whose mother was suspected of having been privy to the plot. Great
hopes were entertained of finding here Digby's great friend, Father
Gerard, who also lay under suspicion of having been concerned in
it.[351] "The house was beset with at least 300 men, and those well
appointed." "They searched for two or three days continually, and
searched with candles in cellars and several dark corners. They searched
every cabinet and box in her [Mrs Vaux's] own closet, for letters, &c."
A letter to Salisbury stated[352] that Mrs Vaux "gave up all her keys;
all the rooms, especially his closet, narrowly searched, but no papers
found. She and the young Lord strongly deny all knowledge of the
treason; the house still guarded." Brother Foley says[353] "that house
was strictly searched and watched for nine days, with the especial hope
of seizing Father Gerard. Though he escaped, the pious lady of the house
was herself carried off to London." She was severely examined before
the Privy Council; and Sir Everard Digby was pressed to say whether he
had not been very lately in her company--indeed, it was on this point
that "they did in a Fashion offer" him "the torture"--but, although she
admitted, in her examination,[354] that Sir Everard Digby, Robert
Catesby, and "Greene and Darcy, priests," had been visitors at her
house, and, when she refused to say where Father Gerard was, she was
told she must die,[355] nothing could be proved against her and she was
liberated.
[351] _Narrative of the G. P._, Gerard, p. 139.
[352] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 256.
[353] _Records, S. J._, Series I. p. 527.
[354] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 259.
[355] _Records, S. J._, Vol. iv. p. 9.
It must have been a great comfort to Lady Digby to receive the scraps of
paper inscribed with lemon juice from her husband. It is easy to imagine
the eagerness and care with which she would hold them before the fire in
order to develope their writing, with anxiety to make every letter
legible and fear lest the paper should become scorched. Sir Everard
calls her his "Dearest"; but, in letters which might possibly fall into
hands for which they were not intended, it would have been out of place
to make much display of affection, and the only exhibition of that kind
is to be found in a poem which will be quoted later.
In her straits for money, she applied, and not altogether without
success, to Salisbury; for we find her writing to him thus:--[356]
"RIGHT HO{able}--Your comfortable favours towards me proseding
from your noblle disposition in ordering a means for my relefe
(being plunged in distresse) by aucthoritie of yours and the rest
of the Lords letters to the Sherife of Buck. incytith me to yeld
and duly too acknowleg by thes my most humble thankes; for w{ch}
favor I shall ever ho{r} your Lo{p} and praye to the ---- allmighti
for your greatest hapines and with all humbllenes remayne to
"Your ho{r} devoted
"MARY DIGBY."
As usual, in a lady's letter, the pith is in the postscript.
"_Pos._ Being most fearfull to ofend you ho{r} yet enforced out of
the dutifull love towards my wofull husband, I humbly beg pardon to
desier your Lo{ps} consent and furtharance for such an unspeakable
hapines as that out of your worthy and noblle disposition you would
purchase merci for my husband's life, for w{ch} you should tie us
our posteritie to you and your howse for ever and I hope his ofence
agaynst his Ma{tie} is not so haynous in that excrable plot, as is
sayd to be contrived by som others, which in my hart I cannot
conceve his natuer to give consente for such an ackt to be
committed."
[Endorsed] "To the Right Hono{ble}. the Earlle of Salsbery,
Principall Secretary to the King's most excelent Ma{tie}."
[356] S. P. Dom. James I., 1606, Vol. 18, n. 36.
Lady Digby did not find Lord Salisbury's orders for her relief so
availing in practice as in theory; for, a little later, she wrote to him
again. I will not weary my readers by giving her exact spelling--such
words as "pertickellers," for particulars, "shreife," for sheriff,
"reseved," for received, and "howsold" for household, soon become
troublesome and vexatious--but I will endeavour to transcribe her letter
according to modern orthography and punctuation.
[357] "MARY DIGBY TO LORD SALISBURY.
"Right Honourable Lord.--My poor and perplexed estate enforceth me
to be an humble petitioner to your good Lordship. I was most
fearful and loth to trouble your honour so long as I had any hopes
of redress without it; but finding none elsewhere, makes me presume
to present these unto your honour. I confidently believe your
lordship doth think that, upon yours with others of the Lords of
his majesty ---- council, your letters to the Sheriff of
Buckinghamshire in my behalf (for which I humbly give thanks), hath
given ease and relief unto my present wants; but truly my lord it
is nothing so, for all which he hath done, since he received that
letter, is but that he hath returned, near from whence he had
taken, part of the household stuff which he had carried away and
there keepeth it; but will not let anything be delivered to my use;
notwithstanding I procured the Lord Treasurer's warrant to him, for
the delivery of divers things most needful for my present use; for
which I was to put in sureties for their return, when they should
be justly demanded, which was by bond and drawn according to the
Lord Treasurer his own direction, which was, as the sheriff said,
too favourable for me, and therefore did refuse it; such strange
and hard proceedings doth he still continue against me (the
particulars thereof were too tedious to relate unto your lordship)
that, without your honour's good assistance, I shall receive no
part of such good favours as your lordship meant unto me. Never,
since my grievous calamities, I have received no one penny, but am
forced to borrow, both for my own present spending, and to furnish
Mr Digby with those things he wants, and as hath been called to me
for by the lieutenant of the Tower, which borrowed money I must
forthwith repay; and the cause why I can receive none, according to
the allowance which was granted for me, is because this sheriff
will not pay the money into the exchequer which he hath received
for such goods which he sold of Mr Digby's, which is between 200
and 300 pounds, and hath said he would keep it in his hands till he
were allowed for the charge he was at, for the carrying the goods"
[some words here are mutilated] "and bringing of them back again.
My hope in your Lordship's pity to my distress promiseth me to find
relief for these my complaints, for which I will ever remain your
honour's most thankful--
"MARY DIGBY.
"_Postscript._--Right honourable,--Though it be no part of my
letter, yet is it a very far greater part of my humble desire to
your Lordship whereby, I cannot but beg your pitiful commiseration
to incline and further his majesty's mercy for my woeful husband,
which if your Lordship extend such a charitable act, we and all
what is ours will ever be your honour's."
[357] S. P. Dom. James I., Vol. xviii. n. 37.
The "goods which he sold of Mr Digby's," mentioned in the letter may be
assumed to have been the contents of the trunk, carried by his
"trunk-horse," and inventoried in a letter[358] written from the Tower.
[358] _Letters of Sir E. D._, paper 22.
It is probable that Lady Digby wrote to her husband, expressing herself
powerless to "conceive his nature to give consent for such an act" as
the Gunpowder Plot; for he wrote to her from the Tower excusing
himself.[359]
[359] _Letters of Sir E. D._ (p. 169) No. 1.
"Let me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the least sin in
the Plot, I would not have been of it for all the world: and no other
cause drew me to hazard my Fortune and Life, but zeal to God's Religion.
For my keeping it secret, it was caused by certain belief, that those
which were best able to judge of the lawfulness of it,"--by these he
evidently means the Jesuit Fathers--"had been acquainted with it, and
given way to it. More reasons I had to persuade me to this belief than I
dare utter, which I will never, to the suspicion of any, though I
should go to the Rack for it, and as I did not know it directly that it
was approved by such so did I hold it in my Conscience the best not to
know any more if I might." He seems to have intended to convey that he
had been practically certain that the Jesuit Fathers had given their
approval but was anxious to be able to say that he did not actually know
this.
In another letter,[360] he says "My dearest, the ---- I take at the
uncharitable taking of these matters, will make me say more than I ever
thought to have done. For if this design had taken place, there could
have been no doubt of other Success: for that night, before any other
could have brought the news, we should have known it by Mr Catesby, who
should have proclaimed the Heir-Apparent at Charing-Cross, as he came
out of Town; to which purpose there was a Proclamation Drawn," etc. The
absurdity of attaching any value to a proclamation by such a
comparatively insignificant individual as Catesby does not appear to
have occurred to him!
[360] (P. 177), No. 9.
After describing the plans laid for securing the young Duke and the
Princess Elizabeth, he goes on to say "there were also courses taken for
the satisfying of the people if the first had taken effect, as the
speedy notice of Liberty and Freedom from all manner of Slavery, as the
ceasing of Wardships and all Monopolies, which with change would have
been more plausible to the people, if the first had been, than is now.
There was also a course taken to have given present notice to all
Princes, and to _Associate_ them with an Oath answerable to the League
in France." Whether "all Princes" would have felt inclined "to
associate" themselves "with an Oath" at the request of a band of
assassins may be questioned.
Sir Everard, as well as Lady Digby, wrote to Salisbury; but his letters
asked for fewer favours.
"If your Lordship," he wrote,[361] "and the State think it fit to deal
severely with the Catholics, within brief there will be massacres,
rebellions, and desperate attempts against the King and State. For it is
a general received reason among Catholics, that there is not that
expecting and suffering course now to be run that was in the Queen's
time, who was the last of her line, and last in expectance to run
violent courses against Catholics; for then it was hoped that the King
that now is, would have been at least free from persecuting, as his
promise was before coming into this realm, and as divers his promises
have been since his coming. All these promises every man sees broken."
At the same time, he said that he[362] "will undertake to secure the
Pope's promise not to excommunicate the King, if he will deal mildly
with Catholics." As to plots against the king and the government,
something of the kind, he declares, would have been contrived sooner,
if the priests had not hindered it.
[361] I use Jardine's modern rendering of this particular letter, in
_Criminal Trials_, Vol. ii. p. 24. But the actual letter may be
found among the S. P. Dom. James I., Vol. xvii., n. 9.
[362] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 266.
An earlier letter written by him from the Tower,[363] is thus
summarized:--"Sir Everard Digby to Salisbury. Is willing to tell all he
knows, but can remember nothing more than he has already confessed,
except that Catesby intended to send the Earls of Westmoreland and Derby
to raise forces in the North, and would send information to France,
Spain, Italy, etc., of their success. Begs that the King will have
compassion on his family."
[363] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 261.
Meanwhile examinations were constantly going on, not only of the
prisoners in the Tower, but also of other persons, with regard to the
Gunpowder Plot, and the correspondence on the subject was very large.
Lord Salisbury wrote to the Lord Chancellor of Scotland,[364] assuring
him that he "would rather die than be slack in searching the dregs of"
the plot "to the bottom." Lady Markham wrote to Salisbury, that[365] the
"Plot hath taken deep and dangerous root"; that many will not believe
"that holy and good man," Father Gerard, had anything to do with it; and
that Sir Everard Digby is the man from whom he must endeavour to obtain
particulars about Walley--_i.e._, Father Garnet. Mrs Vaux was examined
on the eighteenth of November, and she made no secret of Sir Everard
having been a visitor at her house. Lady Lovel admitted knowing both
Sir Everard and Catesby, though slightly. To have been a friend of
Digby's was now very dangerous. Servants and retainers of the
conspirators were arrested in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and there
examined.
[364] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 265.
[365] _Ib._, p. 259.
Sir Everard must have envied Tresham his fate, when he heard that he had
died in the Tower, especially as he was allowed to have his wife to
attend him in his illness; although his death was caused by a painful
disease.[366] Sir William Waad, the Lieutenant of the Tower, had a
consultation of three doctors--not from motives of mercy, but in order
that, "by great care and good providence," he might "die of that kind of
death he most" deserved, and, in spite of his disappointment, Waad seems
to have felt a grain of satisfaction, when writing to Salisbury to
announce his death,[367] in stating that he died "with very great pain."
His death took place only four days before that appointed for the trial,
and, whatever may have been his sufferings, who can doubt that Sir
Everard would gladly have changed places with him.
[366] Jardine's _Gunpowder Plot_, p. 124. _N.B._--By many people,
Tresham's death was attributed to poison.--See _The Month_, No. 366,
p. 493. Jardine's _G. P._, p. 127, and Goodman's Court of King
James, p. 107.
[367] S. P. Dom. James I., 23 Dec. 1605.
In his solitude in the Tower, Sir Everard wrote the following lines
which, if considerably lacking in merit from a poetical and critical
point of view, have some interest on account of their pitiful, though
calm and dignified tone, as well as the affection which they exhibit
towards his wife and his children; and, as the Protestant Bishop Barlow,
in his preface to their publication in 1678, says, "though they be not
excellent, yet have" they "a good tincture of Piety and devotion in
them."
* * * * *
Come grief, possess that place thy Harbingers have seen,
And think most fit to entertain thyself:
Bring with thee all thy Troops, and sorrow's longest Teem
Of followers, that wail for worldly pelf:
Here shall they see a Wight more lamentable,
Than all the troop that seem most miserable.
For here they may discry, if perfect search be made,
The substance of that shadow causing woe:
An unkind Frost, that caused hopeful Sprouts to fade;
Not only mine, but other's grief did grow
By my misdeed, which grieves me most of all,
That I should be chief cause of other's fall.
For private loss to grieve, when others have no cause
Of sorrow, is unmeet for worthy mind;
For who but knows, that each man's sinful life still draws
More just revenge than he on earth can find.
But to undo desert and innocence,
Is, to my mind, grief's chiefest pestilence.
I grieve not to look back into my former state,
Though different that were from present case;
I moan not future haps, though forced death with hate
Of all the world were blustred in my face:
But oh I grieve to think that ever I
Have been a means of others misery.
When on my little Babes I think, as I do oft,
I cannot chuse but then let fall some tears;
Me-thinks I hear the little Pratler, with words soft,
Ask, Where is Father that did promise Pears,
And other knacks, which I did never see,
Nor Father neither, since he promised me.
'Tis true, my Babe, thou never saw'st thy Father since,
Nor art thou ever like to see again:
That stopping Father into mischief which will pinch
The tender Bud, and give thee cause to plain
His hard dysaster; that must punish thee,
Who art from guilt as any creature free.
But oh! when she that bare thee, Babe, comes to my mind,
Then do I stand as drunk with bitterest woe,
To think that she, whose worth were such to all, should find
Such usage hard, and I to cause the blow,
Of her such sufferance, that doth pierce my heart,
And gives full grief to every other part.
Hence comes the cause, that each tear striveth to be first,
As if I meant to stint them of their course,
No salted meats: that done you know my heart would burst
With violent assaults of your great force:
But when I stay you, 'tis for that I fear,
Your gushing so will leave me ne'er a tear.
But ah! this doubt, grief says I never need to fear
For she will undertake t'afford me store;
Who in all her knowledge never cause of woe did hear
That gall'd her deeper or gave witness more
Of earth's hard usage, that does punish those
That guiltless be, with Fortune's cruellest blows.
Though further cause of more than utterable grief,
As other's loss I could dilate at large,
Which I am cause of, yet her suffering being chief
Of all their woes, that sail in this deep Barge
Of sorrow's Sea: I cannot but reflect
Hereon more deeply, and with more respect.
On which dear object when I look with grieved mind,
Such store of pities see I plead her case,
As hardest hearts cause of compassion there would find;
To hear what could be said before that face
Which I have wrong'd in causing so to weep;
The grief whereof constrains my pen to sleep.
The trial of the prisoners was long delayed; quite ten weeks passed
between their capture and their sentence; but, as Mr Hepworth Dixon puts
it,[368] they were, in fact, "undergoing a course of daily trial by
Northampton in the Tower." In the so-called gunpowder plot room, in the
Lieutenant's House, with its panelled walls, and high, wide window, they
underwent "a thousand interrogatories from Coke, a thousand hostilities
from Waad, and a thousand treacheries from Forsett. This Forsett was one
of Northampton's spies; a useful and despicable wretch, whom his master
employed in overhearing and reporting the private conversations of
prisoners with each other."
[368] _Her Majesty's Tower_, Vol. ii. p. 193.
Coke himself, in his speech at the trial, referred to the long delay in
bringing the prisoners to the bar, saying[369] "There have been already
twenty and three several days spent in Examinations." And he summarized
the good results of the delay thus[370]:--"_Veritas Temporis filia_,
Truth is the daughter of Time, especially in this case; wherein by
timely and often Examinations, First, matters of greatest moment have
been lately found out. Secondly, some known Offenders, and those
capital, but lately apprehended. Thirdly, sundry of the principal and
Arch-traytors before unknown, now manifested, as the Jesuits.
Fourthly--" but he might have abridged this statement into these few
words--We hoped to worm some evidence out of the prisoners against
Catholic priests.
[369] _Gunpowder Treason_, p. (16).
[370] _Ib._