But again, seeing that we know that a certain Thomas Ward lived at Court,
by reason of his being a member of the household of Lord Mounteagle, who
had been admitted to Court ever since the accession to the throne of James
the First, by this point also I know not how to escape from these several
probable conclusions: that the Thomas Warde (or Ward), the
gentleman-servant of Lord Mounteagle, was the brother of Marmaduke Warde
(or Ward); that, by consequence, he was the connection of Christopher
Wright; and that by remoter consequence, Christopher Wright himself was a
connection of Lord Mounteagle likewise.
Now, granting the family connection between Thomas Warde and Wright, there
is no antecedent improbability, but the contrary, in the supposal that
Christopher Wright, if and when stricken with remorse at the thought of
his sworn part and lot in the iniquitous Gunpowder Plot, had recourse to
this Thomas Warde, who was his connection, for trustworthy and effectual
help in saving from a sudden and cruel death, haply himself and his
confederates, but certainly his Sovereign and the Senators of his
Fatherland, along with Heaven alone knows whom else beside!
Furthermore, if there were any antecedent improbability in such a supposal
as that Christopher Wright should have recourse to this particular
Yorkshireman, Thomas Warde, in the hour of his need, it should be had in
continual remembrance——as a self-evident proposition from the constitution
of human nature——that the person or persons to whom a Yorkshireman like
Christopher Wright (supposing him to have been the revealing plotter)
almost certainly would have recourse would be, if possible, some tried and
constant native of his own County, whose intellect, he would think, there
was some guarantee for being shrewd and practical, his heart not devoid of
fellow-feeling with a “brother in adversity,” and his will at once
indomitable and energetic.[80] One who indeed laughs at alleged
impossibilities and who cries: “_It shall be done!_”