What was the Gunpowder Plot? Part 20

[394] Foley, _Records_, iii. 509; _English Protestants' Plea_, p. 59.

[395] _Dom. James I._ xvi. 115.

[396] _England's Warning Peece_, by T. S. [Thomas Spencer], P.73.

[397] Cotton MSS. _Vespasian C._, ix. f. 259.

[398] Winwood, _Memorials_, ii. 178.

[399] _Dom. James I._ xvi. 104.

[400] William Stanley.

[401] The last words are added in another hand.

[402] "I am in great dispute with myself to speak in the case of this gentleman. A former dearness between me and him tied so firm a knot of my conceit of his virtues, now broken by discovery of his imperfections, that I protest, did I serve a king that I knew would be displeased with me for speaking, in this case I would speak, whatever came of it; but seeing he is compacted of piety and justice, and one that will not mislike of any man for speaking a truth, I will answer," etc.--_State Trials._

[403] "For this do I profess in the presence of Him that knoweth and searcheth all men's harts, that if I did not some tyme cast a stone into the mouth of these gaping crabbs, when they are in their prodigall humour of discourses, they wold not stick to confess dayly how contrary it is to their nature to be under your soverainty; though they confess (Ralegh especially) that (_rebus sic stantibus_) naturall pollicy forceth them to keep on foot such a trade against the great day of mart.

In all which light and soddain humours of his, though I do no way check him, because he shall not think I reject his freedome or his affection ... yet under pretext of extraordinary care of his well doing, I have seemed to dissuade him from ingaging himself so farr," etc.--_Hatfield MSS._, cx.x.xv. f. 65.

[404] _Criminal Trials_, ii. 358.

[405] Father Gerard (_Narrative_, p. 201) denies in the most emphatic terms that he was the priest who said ma.s.s on this occasion. The point is fully discussed by the late Father Morris, S. J., in his Life of Father Gerard, pp. 437-438.

[406] The accompanying facsimile of this portion of Faukes' confession exhibits the marks made by c.o.ke, and his added direction in the margin, _hucusque_ ("thus far"). In the original his additions are in red ink.

[407] It is singular that he should not mention Faukes himself as one of those who received the oath from Gerard. There is no mention in any doc.u.ment of Greenway as giving the oath to Bates, or anyone else.

The facsimile of Faukes' signature, appended to his confession of November 9th, though affording unmistakable evidence of torture, gives no idea of the original, wherein the letters are so faintly traced as to be scarcely visible. It is evident that the writer had been so severely racked as to have no strength left in his hands to press the pen upon the paper. He must have fainted when he had written his Christian name, two dashes alone representing the other.

This signature, with other of the more sensational doc.u.ments connected with the Plot, is exhibited in the newly established museum at the Record Office.

[408] _Dom. James I._ xviii. 97, February 27th, 1606, N. S. (Latin).

[409] _Narratio de rebus a se in Anglia gestis_ (Stonyhurst MSS.).

Published in Father G. R. Kingdon's translation under the t.i.tle of _During the Persecution_.

[410] _During the Persecution_, p. 83.

[411] _Court and Character of King James_, p. 350 (ed. 1811).

[412] Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, to whose charge the Powder Plot conspirators were committed, was afterwards dismissed from his office on a charge of embezzling the jewels of the Lady Arabella Stuart.

[413] Presumably the same Arthur Gregory who at an earlier period had counterfeited the seals of Mary Queen of Scots' correspondence.

[414] _Dom. James I._ xxiv. 38.

[415] March 3rd, 1605-6 (Hatfield MSS.).

[416] Eudaemon Joannes cites the renegade Alabaster as testifying to having seen a letter seemingly of his own to Garnet, which he had never written. (_Answer to Casaubon_, p. 159.)

[417] _Narrative_, p. 54.

[418] _Ibid._ p. 113.

[419] Though we have not now to consider the question of Father Greenway's connection with the conspirators, it may not be out of place to cite his own account of this visit (_Narrative_, Stonyhurst MSS., f.

86 b):

"Father Oswald [Greenway] went to a.s.sist these gentlemen with the Sacraments of the Church, understanding their danger and their need, and this with evident danger to his own person and life: and all those gentlemen could have borne witness that he publicly told them how he grieved not so much because of their wretched and shameful plight, and the extremity of their peril, as that by their headlong course they had given the heretics occasion to slander the whole body of Catholics in the kingdom, and that he flatly refused to stay in their company, lest the heretics should be able to calumniate himself and the other Fathers of the Society."

[420] In this, as in some other respects, Mr. Jardine shows himself rather an advocate than an impartial historian. He holds that the complicity of the writer of the _Narrative_ with the plotters is proved by the intimate knowledge he displays concerning them, "their general conduct--their superst.i.tious fears--their dreams--'their thick coming fancies'--in the progress of the work of destruction." (_Criminal Trials_, ii. xi.)

There is here an evident allusion to the silly story of the "bell in the wall" (related by Greenway and not by Gerard), to which Mr. Jardine gives extraordinary prominence. He does not, however, inform us that Greenway relates this (_Narrative_, f. 58 b) and some similar matters, on the authority of "an acquaintance to whom Catesby told it shortly before his death," and that he leaves it to the judgment of his readers.

Greenway's frequent and earnest protestations of innocence Mr. Jardine summarily dismisses with the observation that they are "ent.i.tled to no credit whatever" (p. xii).

[421] _History_, i. 243.

[422] _Dictionary of National Biography_ (Digby, Sir E.).

CHAPTER IX.

THE SEQUEL.

AS we have already seen, the Gunpowder Plot formed no exception to the general law observable in conspiracies of its period, proving extremely advantageous to those against whom it was princ.i.p.ally directed. No single individual was injured by it except those concerned in it, or accused of being so concerned. On the other hand, it marked an epoch in public policy, and irrevocably committed the king and the nation to a line of action towards Catholics, which up to that time they had hoped, and their enemies had feared, would not be permanently pursued.

"The political consequences of this transaction," says Mr. Jardine,[423]

"are extremely important and interesting. It fixed the timid and wavering mind of the king in his adherence to the Protestant party, in opposition to the Roman Catholics; and the universal horror, which was naturally excited not only in England but throughout Europe by so barbarous an attempt, was artfully converted into an engine for the suppression of the Roman Catholic Church: so that the ministers of James I., having procured the reluctant acquiescence of the king, and the cordial a.s.sent of public opinion, were enabled to continue in full force the severe laws previously pa.s.sed against Papists, and to enact others of no less rigour and injustice."

Such was the effect in fact produced, and the calm deliberation displayed in dealing with the crisis appears to indicate that no misgivings were entertained as to the chance of anything but advantage resulting from it. We have already seen with what strange equanimity the presence of the powder beneath the Parliament House was treated. Not less serene was the att.i.tude of the minister chiefly responsible for the safety of the State in face of the grave dangers still declared to be threatening, even after the "discovery." Preparations, it was officially announced, had been made for an extensive rising of the Catholics, and this had still to be reckoned with. As the king himself informed Sir John Harington, the design was not formed by a few, the "whole legion of Catholics" were implicated: the priests had been active in preaching the holy war, and the Pope himself had employed his authority on behalf of the cause.[424]

Moreover, the conspirators, except Faukes, escaped from London, and hurried to the intended scene of action, where, though no man voluntarily joined them, they were able at first to collect a certain force of their own retainers and domestics, and began to traverse the s.h.i.+res in which their influence was greatest, committing acts of plunder and violence, and calling on all men to join them for G.o.d and the country. For a couple of days the local magistrates did not feel strong enough to cope with them, and forwarded to the capital reports capable, it might be supposed, of alarming those who were bewildered by so totally unexpected an a.s.sault, for which the evidence in hand showed preparations of no ordinary magnitude to have been made. The numbers of the insurgents, it was said, were constantly increasing; only a feeble force could be brought against them; they were seizing horses and ammunition, and all this in "a very Catholic country."

In his famous speech to Parliament, delivered on November 9th, the king dwelt feelingly on the danger of the land, left exposed to the traitors, in the absence of the members of the legislature, its natural guardians.

"These rebels," he declared,[425] "that now wander through the country could never have gotten so fit a time of safety in their pa.s.sage, or whatsoever unlawful actions, as now; when the country, by the aforesaid occasions, is, in a manner, left desolate and waste unto them."[426]

Meanwhile, however, the secretary remained imperturbably tranquil as before, and so well aware of the true state of the case that he could afford to make merry over the madcap adventurers. On the same 9th of November he wrote to the amba.s.sadors: "It is also thought fit that some martial men should presently repair down to those countries where the Robin Hoods are a.s.sembled, to encourage the good and to terrify the bad.

In which service the Earl of Devons.h.i.+re is used, a commission going forth for him as general: although I am easily persuaded that this f.a.ggot will be burnt to ashes before he shall be twenty miles on his way."

His prescience was not at fault, for before despatching the letter the minister was able to announce the utter collapse of the foolish and unsupported enterprise.

No time was lost in turning the defeated conspiracy to practical account. On the very 5th of November[427] itself the Commons proceeded, before all other business, to the first reading of a bill for the better execution of penal statutes against Recusants. On the following day this was read a second time. The house next met on the 9th, to hear the king's speech, and was then prorogued to January 21st following. On that day, the foremost article on the programme was the first reading of a bill (whether the same or another) for the better execution of penal statutes; another was likewise proposed for prevention of the danger of papistical practices; and a committee was appointed "to consider of some course for the timely and severe proceeding against Jesuits, Seminaries, and other popish agents and practisers, and for the prevention and suppression of their plots and practices."[428] On the 22nd there was a motion directed against the seminaries beyond the seas, and the bill for better execution of penal statutes was read a second time. On the 23rd the bill for a public thanksgiving was read twice, being finally pa.s.sed on the 25th. Its preamble runs thus: "Forasmuch as ... no nation of the earth hath been blessed with greater benefits than this kingdom now enjoyeth, having the true and free profession of the gospel under our most gracious sovereign lord King James, the most great, learned, and religious king that ever reigned therein ... the which many malignant and devilish papists, Jesuits, and seminary priests, much envying and fearing, conspired most horribly ..." and so forth.

Thus did the Commons set to work, and the other House, though they declined to sanction all that was proposed in the way of exceptional severity towards the actual conspirators, were no wise lacking in zeal against the Catholic body.