Now, I maintain that there is Evidence, from a very unexpected quarter,
that Thomas Ward had received from the revealing plotter a complete
disclosure of every one of the material facts and particulars of the Plot,
including the existence of the mine, the hiring of the cellar, the storing
therein of the gunpowder, and even the names of the conspirators. And
that, moreover, Thomas Ward had received the fullest power “to discover”
to his master, Lord Mounteagle, all that had been told to him (Ward) by
the revealing plotter, _if_, in the exercise of his (Ward’s) uncontrolled
diplomatic discretion, he deemed it necessary in order to effect,
_primarily_, the temporal salvation of the King and his Parliament, and,
this done, in order to effect, _secondarily_, the escape of the
conspirators themselves.
The Evidence to which I refer is deducible from the testimony of none
other than Francis Tresham, Evidence which he gave to Thomas Winter in
Lincoln’s Inn Walks on Saturday night, the 2nd day of November, just one
week after the delivery of the Letter to Lord Mounteagle, and just one day
after the Letter had been shown by Salisbury to the King.[89]
Thomas Winter, in his “_Confession_,” writes thus: “On Saturday night I
met Mr. Tresham again in Lincoln’s Inn Walks, where he told such speeches
that my Lord of Salisbury should use to the King, as I gave it lost the
second time, and repeated the same to Mr. Catesby, who hereupon was
resolved to be gone, but stayed to have Mr. Percy come up whose consent
herein we wanted. On Sunday night came Mr. Percy and no ‘nay,’ but would
abide the uttermost trial.”[90]
To what purport can these “speeches” have been, I should like to know,
which so mightily wrought on the nerves of even the doughty Thomas Winter
that they were potent enough to break down and sweep away the barriers
formed by the strong affection which he naturally must have harboured for
the pet scheme and the darling project that had cost himself and his
companions the expenditure of so much “slippery time,”[91] so much sweat
of the brow, and so much treasure of the pocket? Yea, indeed, to what
purport can these “speeches” have been?