the Government after the failure of the Gunpowder Plot. It must have been some extremely important service secretly rendered to the Government that enabled him to wipe out the stain of his past treasons, and bask in the sunshine of the royal favour. He had, perhaps, been for months past (prior to November, 1605) employed by Cecil as a spy upon the plotters. There is every reason to believe that about Michaelmas (1605) he was staying with Catesby and Percy at Bath. It was probably an additional stroke of fortune for him that Catesby was killed at Holbeach, for that arch-conspirator, the deare Robine' of Mounteagle's affection, must have become at the last pretty well acquainted with his friend's intrigues. Percy, slain at Holbeach, might have revealed something, for he also was with Mounteagle at Bath. It is noteworthy, too, that after being at Bath Catesby admitted into the conspiracy, Rookewood, Sir Everard Digby, and Tresham. In fact, it was resolved at Bath by Catesby and Percy, in consultation, to appeal to the trio just mentioned with a view to getting them to join the plot. Why, then, should not Percy and Catesby have taken Mounteagle, with whom they were staying, into their confidence regarding their idea of approaching Rookewood, Digby, and Tresham, all three of whom were known to their host, and one of whom was his relative? Moreover, Baynham seems to have been sent to Rome as the result of the deliberations

of Garnet, Catesby, and Mounteagle, when meeting together at Fremland (Essex), in July, 1605.

Thomas Winter, in his confession, refers explicitly to this meeting at Bath in September, when he says, 'abought this time did Mr. Catsby and Mr. Percy meet at the bath wher they agreed t' the company being as yett butt few Mr. Catesby should have the others authority to call in any two whom he thought fit, by which authority he called in after Sir Everatt Digby, though at what time I know not, and last of all Mr. Francis Tressham.'

To sum up the whole of the case against Lord Mounteagle seems strong in the extreme. That a man with such bad antecedents, and connected by such close ties with the principal plotters, could have been ignorant of what was going on, it would seem futile to conjecture. That he was a party to writing the famous letter addressed to himself can no longer be disputed; and the evidence-circumstantial though it bein favour of his having been an accessory both to the compilation of this letter and to the betrayal of the plot to Cecil, appears to me beyond all doubt.

That Lord Mounteagle's connection with the plot was not openly revealed by the conspirators, when imprisoned in the Tower, was due to two considerations: (1) all attempts to incriminate him were checked by the Government, and (2) a

lingering hope was entertained by some of the conspirators that Mounteagle (if not accused by them) would intercede for their lives. As to the first of these considerations, proof is fully forthcoming when we notice that, in some cases, the agents of the Council refused to write down Mounteagle's name in the depositions, and in other cases they calmly erased or papered over his name if entered in the prisoner's confessions. As to the second of these considerations, ample proof is to be found by reading the report of the conversation (overheard in the Tower) on January 25, 1606, between Guy Faukes and Robert Winter.

1 On more than one occasion Garnet was given a very broad hint not to mention Mounteagle's name on any account whatever.

2 In one very important instance Mounteagle's name is altered to 'Montague.' There was a Romanist peer called Viscount Montague, but this special confession certainly refers only to Mounteagle. Lord Montague was fined £4000 after the failure of the plot.

T

CHAPTER XX

THOMAS WINTER'S CONFESSION

HE formal confession of Thomas Winter is a most important document. Some con

troversy has arisen about it owing to the fact that, although the handwriting of the original text is undoubtedly Winter's, his surname is not written in the usual manner, the signature affixed to the confession being spelled 'Winter,' instead of Wintour.' This circumstance, however, is of no great moment when we consider how various were the forms of spelling used by Winter's contemporaries. People of far greater genius than this conspirator, living under Elizabeth and James I., did not-if we may jocularly express it thus-know how to spell their own names. Ralegh, Shakspeare, and Sidney, have left behind them their signatures spelled in various forms,' so that the fact of Winter signing himself as his name is now known to us is of no consequence to those acquainted with the social history of his age.

In nearly all respects the document can

As has Sir William Waad, Winter's gaoler.

undoubtedly be pronounced genuine, although here and there the wretched man may have been forced either to insert or to omit a sentence which he would have much liked not to do, but the confession may, nevertheless, be pronounced a frank and veracious story of the plot. The insinuation that Winter could not have penned this confession because his arm had not recovered from the wound received at Holbeach is absurd; since we have still with us to-day the original manuscript accounts bearing witness that he was then not only quite well enough to write, but that he had even written at some length two or three days before he began compiling this formal confession.

?

Sir Edward Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, writing to Cecil on November 21, 1605, mentions that Thomas Winter doth find his hand so strong, as after dinner he will settle himself to write that he hath verbally declared to your Lordship, adding what he shall remember.' Winter, therefore, was well enough to write by November 21, that is to say, four days before the date attached to his longest confession,' which runs as follows:

'The Voluntary Declaration of Thomas Winter, of Hoodington, in the County of Worcester, gent., the 25th of Nov., 1605, at

1 The 23rd seems to have been the date on which he wrote, but the '23rd' on the Hatfield original copy has been altered into the 25th' by another hand.