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way, or lower him in the eyes of their coreligionists. Concerning Lord Mounteagle, by keeping silent as to his knowledge of Mounteagle's treasons and treachery, Garnet thought that his lordship might intercede with Salisbury to save his life. That Mounteagle did intercede it is generally believed, but his intercession was of no use. Father Garnet was too valuable a prize to spare.

Garnet, in common with Tresham, Mounteagle, and Warde, evidently conjectured that so soon as the conspirators learnt that the letter delivered at Hoxton was in the hands of the Privy Council they would find refuge in flight to the Continent. The terrible disaster of the explosion would thereby be avoided, and the Papist cause in England left in statu quo. Garnet and the others must also have conjectured that the conspirators would be forced to escape, not merely because they knew that their secret was out, but because Cecil would also immediately announce the discovery of the Plot to the whole word, and consequently compel them to try to escape without delay. Instead of this, Cecil upset all calculations by displaying no sign that he held them in the hollow of his hand, and thus lulled them into a false security.

Father Garnet's behaviour during his imprisonment and trial directly favours the supposition that he had played an important part in the delivery of the letter. All the time that he was

fighting the inquisitors he seems (to the very last) to have been buoyed up with some strange hope that he would not be put to death. All the time he seems to have been labouring like a man who possessed some great secret, which, if he could only divulge it, would demonstrate to the world that he was not quite so guilty as external evidences tended to indicate.

If Garnet induced Anne Vaux to communicate with Mounteagle and Tresham, we may be sure that he went about his work with sufficient craft to cover up his tracks, so that he could never be suspected by his co-religionists of having had a hand in the business. As soon as he discovered that Anne Vaux had obtained an insight into what was going on, he had wit enough to discern that, woman-like, she could not keep the secret to herself, and that, terrified at what she had heard, she would do her best to prevent the explosion, if only in order to save the innocent Roman Catholic peers in Parliament, such as the Lords Stourton, Mordaunt, Mounteagle, and Montague. That they were to be prevented from going to the Parliament by the conspirators she did not, of course, know, the final deliberations of the plotters to that end having only been taken at a very late date, and, of course, in secret. Garnet's task, therefore, in advising Anne Vaux to consult with Tresham or Mounteagle may have been a very easy one. Probably, if not almost certainly, Anne consulted him in confession

about her fears; and he, without in any way implicating or identifying himself in the matter at issue, contented himself with telling her to seek any means possible to save the Roman Catholic peers and gentlemen likely to be present at Westminster, without at the same time delivering their own friends engaged in the conspiracy into the hands of the Government.

In conclusion, then, I venture to submit that the concoction and delivery of the famous anonymous letter was severally devised by Mounteagle, Francis Tresham, Warde, and Anne Vaux; that Father Garnet was Anne Vaux's adviser in communicating with Tresham and Mounteagle; that Thomas Warde and Lord Mounteagle planned together the delivery of the letter; that Salisbury knew nothing of the subtle part played by Father Garnet in the affair; that the letter was actually written by Anne Vaux at Tresham's dictation; that Mounteagle had, on behalf of Salisbury, acted as a spy upon the conspirators for some time previous to his going to Hoxton; and that he had originally been enlisted by Robert Catesby and Thomas Winter as a subordinate member of the conspirators himself.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE OFFICIAL STORY OF THE PLOT

Or long after the execution of the conspirators, an official record of the dis

NOT

covery of the plot and its various ramifications was drawn up by order of the King. This account went by the title of The King's Book, and it was given out to the world that James I. was the actual author. That he was the author, however, is not correct, although he evidently perused the contents before going to press, and interpolated into the text several suggestions and alterations of his own, at Cecil's advice. The Book was eventually included in Bishop Montague's' collected edition of the King's works, whence I have transcribed that portion of the version rendered below.

The Book bears ample evidence of having been written under the direct supervision of Lord Salisbury, who saw the necessity of publishing an official account of the plot, which, whilst claiming recognition as the most accurate

1 Richard Montague (1577-1641), Bishop of Chichester and Norwich. In Cobbett's State Trials he is erroneously called Bishop of Winchester.

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