successive days. Still no semblance of proof could be elicited; and recourse was had from violence to artifice. The warder of Garnet, acting by the order of the lieutenant, put on the disguise of a friend. He pitied the restraint of his prisoner; he affected to venerate him as a martyr for religion; he offered him every indulgence which could be granted, consistently with his own safety. The jesuit suffered himself to be deceived: and, through the medium of this unexpected friend, commenced a correspondence with several catholics. But though the letters on both sides were carried to the lieutenant, and by him submitted to the inspection of the commissioners, they furnished no new intelligence, no proof whatever against the prisoner or his friends.* The ingenuity of the lieutenant was not exhausted. He removed Oldcorne to a cell contiguous to that of Garnet, and a hint was conveyed to both that they might communicate with each other through a narrow aperture in the door. The fact was that there were two doors opposite to each other, and that between them stood two persons to overhear the conversation. Oldcorne, among other things, asked his fellow prisoner what had been urged against him respecting the plot: and Garnet without hesitation replied, that there he was secure, "being there was no man living, who could touch him in that matter, but one," nor any thing that could excite suspicion against him, unless it were that he had desired his congregation to pray for the success of the catholic cause, and had recited a hymn, containing expressions which might by his enemies be supposed to allude to the conspiracy. These incautious admissions were eagerly caught by the two spies, and the information was instantly transmitted to the council. Confession. Garnet, to his surprise, received an order to answer this question: Was there not one man living, who could accuse him of having been privy to the plot? He replied in the negative, was placed on the rack, and heard the conversation between himself and Oldcorne repeated in his presence. It was now useless to deny his words: but he undertook to explain them: he had been consulted in confession by his brother Greenway; the secrecy to which he was bound through reverence to the sacrament, had hitherto compelled him to be silent: now, that he The letters were written with common ink, and on ordinary subjects: but in addition notes were inserted written with the juice of oranges or lemons, which on the application of heat became visible. On this account the lieutenant found it necessary to retain the originals, and to forward exact copies. Greenway's MS. 105. Some of these letters are still in the State Paper Office. was subject to torture, he would avail himself of the permission previously given to him by Greenway, and was therefore ready to acknowledge the fact. And trial. March 28. Thus after an interval of two months was laid a ground for the trial of the prisoner. The interest which it excited appeared from the crowd of spectators assembled in the court, among whom were the king himself, all the foreign ambassadors, and most of the members of parliament. Sir Edward Coke, the attorney-general, spoke for some hours. He detailed all the plots, real or imaginary, which had ever been attributed to the catholics since the accession of queen Elizabeth; he declaimed against the jesuitical doctrine of equivocation, and the temporal pretensions of the pontiffs; he described the missionaries in general, and the jesuits in particular, as leagued in an impious conspiracy to destroy the king and the leaders of the protestant interest. But when he descended to the real merits of the indictment, he soon betrayed the poverty of his case. Not a word was said of the confessions, or the witnesses, or the dying declarations, by which he had promised to prove that Garnet had been the original framer of the plot, and the confidential adviser of the conspirators. This part of the charge was seen to rest on his bare assertion, supported only by a few unimportant facts susceptible of a very different interpretation. Garnet replied with temper and firmness: but was so often interrupted by questions and remarks from the attorney-general and the commissioners on the bench, that the king himself declared they had not given him fair play.* He • The friends of Garnet bitterly complained of the artifice employed to do away the effect of those declarations in his favour, which had been made by the conspirators, both at the bar and on the scaffold. Tresham had been examined in the Tower, whether Garnet had any share in what was called the Spanish treason in 1602: and replied "that father Garnet, otherwise Walley, the jesuit, and father Greenway, were by their desire drawn to be acquainted with Winter's employment into Spain to give him more credit unto it." (Original in the State Paper Office.) He afterwards doubted the accuracy of this deposition; and on his death-bed dictated a letter to the earl of Salisbury, in which he recalled what he had said respecting Garnet being privy to Winter's object, because "he had not seen him for 14 years before." It is evident from all the circumstances, that these 14 years referred to the Spanish treason in 1602. Coke, however, at the trial, informed the court, that Tresham in his letter asserted that he had not seen Garnet for 16 years, whereas Garnet himself confessed, that they had seen each other several times of late: and the earl of Salisbury, turning to the prisoner, asked him how he could explain Tresham's assertion. The jesuit, unaware of the artifice, and supposing that Tresham had spoken of the last year, imprudently replied that "perhaps he equivocated." This was sufficient. It was immediately inferred, that no credit was due to declarations of dying men, who could equivocate even at that awful hour. State Trials, ii. 257. Gerard's MS. p. 135. Bartoli, 563. acknowledged that he had heard of the plot in confession; but among catholics the secrecy of confession was inviolable. Were it otherwise, no one would disclose his intended crimes to him, who of all men was most likely, by his advice and authority, to divert the sinner from the guilt which he meditated. As for himself he abhorred the plot as much as the most loyal of his persecutors; and had done to prevent it whatever in his conscience he could persuade himself that it was lawful for him to do. The attorney-general had indeed attempted to prove in him a traitorous intention from several circumstances: but these he could show proceeded from very different motives, and ought to lead to an opposite conclusion. The jury were not to judge from conjectures and presumptions; what he had asserted was the whole truth: nor had the prosecutor attempted to bring forward any direct evidence to the contrary. Though a verdict of guilty was returned, his friends professed themselves satisfied with the proceedings. All that had been proved against him was that he had not betrayed the secret confided to him in confession. The boast of Coke that he would show him to have been the author and adviser of the plot had failed; and Cecil himself had confessed, that they could produce nothing more against him than had been disclosed by his conference with Oldcorne. Under such circumstances, they asserted that if he were to suffer, he would suffer, not for treason, but for the conscientious discharge of his duty.* Subsequent examinations. March 31. It is not improbable that Garnet's defence made a favourable impression on the mind of the king. Instead of being led to execution, he was thrice more examined, to ascertain whether it was in confession or out of confession that he had received the knowledge of the plot; and though April 4. he was told that Greenway was in custody, and April 6. had given a different account, he still persisted in asserting that he understood the secret to have been communicated to him under the seal of confession.† He was after • There are several accounts of this celebrated trial. That published by authority, under the title of "a true and perfect relation of the whole proceedings," has been reprinted in the State Trials, ii. 217: but from the par tiality with which it evidently mutilates the answers and defence of Garnet, it should be compared with the relations published by his friends, which may be seen in Bartoli, 546. More, 316. and in Mr. Butler's Memoirs, ii. 124. Gerard in his MS. narrative, p. 137, remarks that the jury, when they returned their verdict, confined it to the guilt of having concealed the know. ledge which he had received of the conspiracy. See note (D.) Tortura Torti, 425. Causabon ad Frontonem Duc. 132, 133. April 28. wards interrogated respecting the doctrine of May 3. tion. Punishment lords. Though James was satisfied that the great body of the English catholics had been kept in ignorance of the plot, he still believed that all its ramifications had not yet been discovered. There could be no doubt that Fawkes had admitted associates in Flanders, and suspicion attached to Owen, a Welch catholic, and to Baldwin, a jesuit, who were both saved from prosecution by the obstinate refusals of the archduke and the king of Spain to deliver them into the hands of the English ambassador. At home, the domestic relation between the earl of "This I acknowledge to be according to my opinion and the opinion of the schoolmen. And our reason is, for that, in cases of lawful equivocation, the speech by equivocation being saved from a lye, the same speech may be without perjury, confirmed by oath, or by any other usual way, though it were by receiving the sacrament, if just necessity so requireHenry Garnet." Original in the State Paper Office in Garnet's own handwriting. It was reported generally that he had confessed his guilt. (Gunpowder Treason. Boderie, i. 49.) but that confession was confined to his concealment of his suspicions. More, 327. Butler's Memoirs, iii. 342, second edition. Chaloner, ii. 483. Eudæmon Joan. 349. Owen was servant to the king of Spain, who demanded the proofs of Х Nov. 8. Northumberland and the traitor Percy was deemed a sufficient reason to place the former under restraint in the house of the archbishop of Canterbury; and the confession of the conspirators that Catesby wished to save the viscount Montague, and knew the intention of the lords Mordaunt and Stourton to be absent from parliament, led to the arrest of these three noblemen.* It was in vain that they protested their ignorance of the treason; they were condemned in the star-chamber to suffer imprisonment during the royal pleasure, and to pay fines to the king, the lord Stourton in six thousand, the lord Mordaunt in ten thousand pounds, and the viscount Montague in a still larger sum. The earl was committed to the Tower, and repeatedly examined; but he answered from the beginning with an air of scorn and confidence, pointing out the method of discovering his guilt, if he were guilty, and braving his June 1. his guilt to be sent to Brussels, and promised to punish him if he were guilty. This was refused. Baldwin was apprehended in 1610 by the elector palatine, as he was passing through his dominions, and was sent to England. He underwent many examinations in the Tower, at the last of which the king assisted, but nothing was discovered to prove him guilty. Winwood, ii. 183. 187-189. 227. 232. iii. 211. 407. Bartoli, 517. • Fawkes confessed that "Catesby told him lord Mordaunt would not be there the first day, because he would not be present at the sermon; for as yet the king did not know he was a catholique, and that the lord Stourton's occasions were such he could not come to town before the Friday after." Original MS. in the State Paper Office. There are in the same collection two letters from lord Montague to the lord treasurer, declaring his innocence, and denying that he had any warning of the plot. Cecil, in a letter to sir Thomas Edmonds, says, that Percy wished to save Northumberland and Mounteagle, and that Catesby knew Stourton, Mordaunt, and Montague, would be absent. Birch, 244. It was customary to compound for fines in the star-chamber. Northumberland compounded for £11,000, Montague for £4000, Stourton for £1000. I suspect Mordaunt's fine was entirely remitted. See "the Abstract of his Majesty's Revenue," p. 11. He required them to take the deposition of Percy before he died of his wounds. "He can show me clear as the day, or dark as the night. He will tell the truth, being about to render his account to God." Letter in the State Paper Office. See also Les Ambassades de Boderie, i. 122. 180. 299. Collins' Peerage, ii. 426. His examinations are in the State Paper Office, but contain nothing of consequence. In the Tower he applied himself entirely to scientific and literary pursuits, and by his liberality to men of learning, became the Mecenas of the age. From the number of mathematicians who were generally in his company, and ate at his table, he acquired the name of Henry the wizard. Among them were Hill, Allen, Hariot, Dee, Torperley, and Warner, "the Atlantes of the mathematical world," most of whom enjoyed annuities from his bounty. (Collins, ii. 438.) In the year 1611, Cecil conceived that he had discovered new matter against him, from the testimony of a dismissed servant. He was again subjected to examination, and again foiled the ingenuity or malice of his persecutor. (Winwood, ii. 287, 288.) In 1617, the king's favourite, Hay, |