What was the Gunpowder Plot? Part 5

[107] _E.g._, in the _Advocate of Conscience Liberty_ (1673), p. 225.

[108] _History of Mary Queen of Scots and James I._, p. 334. Bishop Kennet, in his Fifth of November Sermon, 1715, boldly declares that Sanderson speaks not of Cecil the statesman, but of Cecil "a busy Romish priest" (and, he might have added, a paid government spy). The a.s.sertion is utterly and obviously false.

[109] _Memoirs_, p. 22.

[110] _History of England, Royal House of Stuart_, p. 27.

[111] _General History of England_, iii. 757.

[112] _History of His Own Times_, i. 11.

[113] _Church History_, Book X. -- 39.

[114] _Antipathie of the English Lordly Prelacie, to the regall Monarchie and Civill Unity_, p. 151.

[115] _A Short View of the English History_, p. 296.

[116] Note to _Fuller's Church History_, x. -- 39, and to the _Student's Hume_.

[117] _Ill.u.s.trations_, iii. 172.

[118] Parker and Co. This author says of Cecil and his rival Raleigh, "Both were unprincipled men, but Cecil was probably the worst. He is suspected not only of having contrived the strange plot in which Raleigh was involved, but of being privy to the proceedings of Catesby and his a.s.sociates, though he suffered them to remain unmolested, in order to secure the forfeiture of their estates" (p. 338).

[119] _Criminal Trials_, ii. 68.

[120] _History of England_, i. 254, note.

[121] _Catholique Apology_, p. 412.

[122] _Hist. Prov. Angl. S.J._, p. 310.

[123] _Condition of Catholics under James I._, p. 100.

[124] R.O. _Dom. James I._, lx.x.xi. 70, August 29th, 1615.

[125] _A Plain and Rational Account of the Catholick Faith_, Rouen, 1721, p. 197.

[126] _Certamen utriusque Ecclesiae_, James I.

[127] The author of the _English Protestants' Plea_ (1621) says: "Old stratagems and tragedies of Queene Elizabeth's time must needs be renewed and playde againe, to bring not only the Catholikes of England, but their holy religion into obloquy" (p. 56).

Peter Talbot, Bishop of Dublin, in the _Polit.i.tian's Catechisme_ (1658) writes: "That Cecil was the contriver, or at least the fomenter of [the Plot,] was testified by one of his own domestick Gentlemen, who advertised a certain Catholike, by name Master Buck, two months before, of a wicked designe his Master had against Catholikes" (p. 94).

[128] A writer, signing himself "Architect," in an article describing the old palace of Westminster (_Gentleman's Magazine_, July, 1800, p.

627), having occasion to mention the Gunpowder Plot, observes: "This Plot is now pretty well understood not to have been hatched by the Papists, but by an inveterate foe of the Catholicks of that day, the famous minister of James.... All well-informed persons at present laugh at the whole of this business."

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRADITIONAL STORY.

THE history of the Gunpowder Plot prior to its discovery, as related with much circ.u.mstantiality by the government of the day, has, in all essential particulars, been accepted without demur by the great majority of modern writers. We have already seen that those who lived nearer to the period in question were less easily convinced; it remains to show that the internal evidence of the story itself is incompatible with its truthfulness.

The point upon which everything turns is the secret, and therefore dangerous, character of the conspiracy, which, as we are told, completely eluded the vigilance of the authorities, and was on the very verge of success before even a breath of suspicion was aroused, being balked only by a lucky accident occurring at the eleventh hour, in a manner fitly described as miraculous.

On the other hand, however, many plain and obvious considerations combine to show that such an account cannot be true. It is not easy to believe that much which is said to have been done by the conspirators ever occurred at all. It is clear that, if such things did occur, they can by no possibility have escaped observation. There is evidence that the government knew of the Plot long before they suddenly "discovered"

it. Finally, the story of the said "discovery," and the manner in which it took place, is plainly not only untrue, but devised to conceal the truth; while the elaborate care expended upon it sufficiently indicates how important it was held that the truth should be concealed.

There are, moreover, arguments, which appear to deserve consideration, suggesting the conclusion that the Plot was actually set on foot by the secret instigation of those who designed to make it serve their ends, as in fact it did. For our purpose, however, it is not necessary to insist greatly upon these. It will be enough to show that, whatever its origin, the conspiracy was, and must have been, known to those in power, who, playing with their infatuated dupes, allowed them to go on with their mad scheme, till the moment came to strike with full effect; thus impressing the nation with a profound sense of its marvellous deliverance, and winning its confidence for those to whose vigilance and sagacity alone that deliverance appeared due.

That we may rightly follow the details of the story told to us, we must in the first place understand the topography of the scene of operations, which, with the aid of the ill.u.s.trations given, will not be difficult.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT IN THE TIME OF JAMES I.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: INDEX. PARLIAMENT HOUSES IN THE TIME OF JAMES I.

A. The House of Lords.

B. Chamber under the House of Lords, called "Guy Faukes' Cellar."

C. The Prince's Chamber.

D. The Painted Chamber.

E. The "White Hall" or Court of Requests.

F. The House of Commons (formerly St. Stephen's Chapel).

G. Westminster Hall.

H. St. Stephen's Cloisters, converted into houses for the Tellers of the Exchequer.

I. Garden of the Old Palace (afterwards called "Cotton Garden").

J. House built on the site of the Chapel of "Our Lady of the Pew"

(called later "Cotton House").

K K K. Houses built upon ruins of the walls of the Old Palace.

L. Vault under the Painted Chamber.

M. Yard or Court into which a doorway opened from Guy Faukes' Cellar.

N. Pa.s.sage leading from the same Yard or Court into Parliament Place.

O. Parliament Place.