What was the Gunpowder Plot? Part 14

CHAPTER VII.

PERCY, CATESBY, AND TRESHAM.

ON occasion of a notorious trial in the Star Chamber, in the year 1604,[292] Bancroft, the Archbishop of Canterbury, made the significant observation[293] that nothing was to be discovered concerning the Catholics "but by putting some Judas amongst them." That amongst the Powder Plot conspirators there was some one who played such a part, who perhaps even acted as a decoy-duck to lure the others to destruction, has always been suspected, but with sundry differences of opinion as to which of the band it was. Francis Tresham has most commonly been supposed at least to have sent the warning letter to Monteagle, which proved fatal to himself and his comrades: some writers have conjectured that he did a good deal more.[294] Monteagle himself, as we have seen, has been supposed by others to have been in the Plot and to have betrayed it. It would appear, however, that neither of these has so strong a claim to this equivocal distinction as one whose name has been scarcely mentioned hitherto in such a connection.

The part played in the conspiracy by Thomas Percy is undoubtedly very singular, and the more so when we learn something of the history and character of the man. Till within some three years previously[295] he had been a Protestant, and, moreover, unusually wild and dissolute.

After his conversion, he acquired the character of a zealous, if turbulent, Catholic, and is so described, not only by Father Gerard and Father Greenway, but by himself. In a letter written so late as November 2nd, 1605,[296] he represents that he has to leave Yorkshire, being threatened by the Archbishop with arrest, "as the chief pillar of papistry in that county."

It unfortunately appears that all the time this zealous convert was a bigamist, having one wife living in the capital and another in the provinces. When his name was published in connection with the Plot, the magistrates of London arrested the one, and those of Warwickshire the other, alike reporting to the secretary what they had done, as may be seen in the State Paper Office.[297]

Gravely suspicious as such a fact must appear in connection with one professing exceptional religious fervour, it by no means stands alone.

Father Greenway, in describing the character of Percy,[298] dwells much on his sensitiveness to the suspicion of having played false to his fellow Catholics in his dealings with King James in Scotland, coupled with protestations of his determination to do something to show that he as well as they had been deceived by that monarch. We find evidence that as a fact some Catholics distrusted him, as in the examination of one Cary, who, being interrogated concerning the Powder Plot, protested that "Percy was no Papist but a Puritan."[299] There is likewise in the king's own book a strange and obscure reference to Percy as the possible author of the letter to Monteagle, one of the chief grounds for suspecting him being "his backwardness in religion." It would moreover appear that he was not a man who always impressed those favourably who had to do with him, for Chamberlain reminds his friend Carleton that the latter had ever considered him "a subtle, flattering, dangerous knave."[300]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THOMAS PERCY.]

We have seen something of the extraordinary manner in which Percy transacted the business of hiring the house and "cellar," wholly unlike what we should expect from one whose main object was to escape observation, and that he brought to bear the influence of sundry Protestant gentlemen, amongst them Dudley Carleton himself,[301] in order to obtain the desired lease. We know, moreover, that various unfortunate accidents prevented the history of these negotiations from ever being fully told.

Yet more remarkable is a piece of information supplied by Bishop Goodman, his authority being the eminent lawyer Sir Francis Moore, who, says he, "is beyond all exception."[302] Moore, having occasion during the period when the Plot was in progress to be out on business late at night, and going homeward to the Middle Temple at two in the morning, "several times he met Mr. Percy coming out of the great statesman's house, and wondered what his business should be there." Such wonder was certainly not unnatural, and must be shared by us. That a man who was ostensibly the life and soul of a conspiracy directed against the king's chief minister, even more than against the sovereign himself, should resort for conference with his intended victim at an hour when he was most likely to escape observation, is a.s.suredly not the least extraordinary feature in this strange and tangled tale.

Not less suspicious is another circ.u.mstance. Immediately before the fatal Fifth of November, Percy had been away in the north, and he returned to London only on the evening of Sat.u.r.day, the 2nd. Of this return, Cecil, writing a week later,[303] made a great mystery, as though the traitor's movements had been of a most stealthy and secret character, and declared that the fact had been discovered from Faukes only with infinite difficulty, and after many denials. It happens, however, that amongst the State Papers is preserved a pa.s.s dated October 25th, issued by the Commissioners of the North, for Thomas Percy, posting to Court upon the king's especial service, and charging all mayors, sheriffs, and postmasters to provide him with three good horses all along the road.[304] It is manifestly absurd to speak of secrecy or stealth in connection with such a journey, or to pretend that the Chief Secretary of State could have any difficulty in tracing the movements of a man who travelled in this fashion; and protestations of ignorance serve only to show that to seem ignorant was thought desirable.

Considerations like these, it will hardly be denied, countenance the notion that Percy was, in King James's own phrase, a tame duck employed to catch wild ones. Against such a supposition, however, a grave objection at once presents itself. Percy was amongst the very first victims of the enterprise, being one of the four who were killed at Holbeche when the conspirators were brought to bay.

This, unquestionably, must at first sight appear to be fatal to the theory of his complicity, and the importance of such a fact should not be extenuated. At the same time, on further scrutiny, the argument which it supplies loses much of its force.

It must, in the first place, be remembered, that according to the belief then current, it was no uncommon thing, as Lord Castlemaine expresses it[305] the game being secured, to hang the spaniel which caught it, that its master's art might not appear, and, to cite no other instance, we have the example of Dr. Parry, who, as Mr. Brewer acknowledges,[306]

was involved in the ruin of those whom he had been engaged to lure to destruction.

There are, moreover, various remarkable circ.u.mstances in regard to the case of Percy in particular. It was observed at the time as strange and suspicious that any of the rebels should have been slain at all, for they were almost defenceless, having no fire-arms; they did not succeed in killing a single one of their a.s.sailants, and might all have been captured without difficulty. Nevertheless, the attacking party were not only allowed to shoot, but selected just the wrong men as their mark, precisely those who, being chiefly implicated in the beginnings of the Plot, could have afforded the most valuable information,[307] for besides Percy, were shot down Catesby and the two Wrights,[308] all deeply implicated from the first. So unaccountable did such a course appear as at once to suggest sinister interpretations--especially as regarded the case of Percy and Catesby, who were always held to be the ringleaders of the band. As Goodman tells us,[309] "Some will not stick to report that the great statesman sending to apprehend these traitors gave special charge and direction for Percy and Catesby, 'Let me never see them alive;' who it may be would have revealed some evil counsel given." A similar suspicion seems to be insinuated by Sir Edward Hoby, writing to Edmondes, the Amba.s.sador at Brussels[310]: "Percy is dead: who it is thought by some particular men could have said more than any other."

More suspicious still appears the fact that the king's government thought it necessary to explain how it had come to pa.s.s that Percy was not secured alive, and to protest that they had been anxious above all for his capture, but had been frustrated by the inconsiderate zeal of their subordinates. In the "King's Book" we read as follows: "Although divers of the King's Proclamations were posted down after those Traitors with all speed possible, declaring the odiousness of that b.l.o.o.d.y attempt, and the necessity to have Percy preserved alive, if it had been possible, ... yet the far distance of the way (which was above an hundred miles), together with the extreme deepness thereof, joined also with the shortness of the day, was the cause that the hearty and loving affection of the King's good subjects in those parts prevented the speed of his Proclamations."

Such an explanation cannot be deemed satisfactory. The distance to be covered was about 112 miles, and there were three days to do it, for not till November 8th were the fugitives surrounded. They in their flight had the same difficulties to contend with, as are here enumerated, yet they accomplished their journey in a single day, and they had not, like the king's couriers, fresh horses ready for them at every post.

But we have positive evidence upon this point. Father Greenway, who was at the time in the Midlands, close to the scene of action, incidentally mentions, without any reference to our present question,[311] that while the rebels were in the field, messengers came post haste continually, one after the other, from the capital, all bearing proclamations mentioning Percy by name.

It must also be observed that though the couriers, we are told, could not in three days get from London to Holbeche to hinder Percy's death, they contrived to ride in one from Holbeche to London with news that he was dead.[312]

Another circ.u.mstance not easy to explain is, that the man who killed Percy and Catesby,[313] John Streete by name, received for his service the handsome pension of two shillings a day for life, equal at least to a pound of our present money.[314] This is certainly a large reward for having done the very thing that the government most desired to avoid, and for an action, moreover, involving no sort of personal risk, killing two practically unarmed men from behind a tree.[315] If, however, he had silenced a dangerous witness, it is easy to understand the munificence of his recompense.

Against Catesby, likewise, there are serious indictments, and it seems impossible to believe him to have been, as commonly represented, a man, however blinded by fanaticism, yet honest in his bad enterprise, who would not stoop to fraud or untruth. It is abundantly evident that on many occasions he deliberately deceived his a.s.sociates, and those whom he called his spiritual guides, making promises which he did not mean to keep, and giving a.s.surances which he knew to be false.[316] It will be sufficient to quote one or two examples quite sufficient to stamp him as a man utterly unscrupulous about the means employed to gain his ends.

On the 5th of November, when, after the failure of the enterprise, he arrived at Dunchurch, in Warwickshire, Catesby, in order to induce Sir Everard Digby to commit himself to the hopeless campaign now to be undertaken, a.s.sured him,[317] that though the powder was discovered, yet the king and Salisbury were killed; all were in "a pother;" the Catholics were sure to rise in a body, one family alone, the Littletons, would bring in one thousand men the next day; and so on,--all this being absolutely untrue. That he had previously employed similar means on a large scale to inveigle his friends into his atrocious and senseless scheme, there is much evidence, strongest of all that of Father Garnet;[318] "I doubt not that Mr. Catesby hath feigned many such things for to induce others."

Worst of all, we learn from another intercepted letter of Garnet's, Catesby had for his own purposes circulated an atrocious slander against Garnet himself, although pa.s.sing as his devoted disciple and friend: "Master Catesby," he wrote,[319] "did me much wrong, and hath confessed that he told them he asked me a question in Q. Elizabeth's time of the powder action,[320] and that I said it was lawful. All which is most untrue. He did it to draw in others."

In view of this, and much else of a similar kind, it is difficult to read Father Gerard's _Narrative_, and more particularly Father Greenway's additions thereto, without a growing feeling that if Catesby sought counsel it was with no intention of being guided by it, and that his sole desire was to get hold of something which might serve his own purposes.

We have already seen that a great deal of mystery attaches to Francis Tresham, who is generally supposed to have written the letter to Monteagle, and was clearly suspected by some of having done a great deal more; for the author of the _Politician's Catechism_ speaks of him as having access to Cecil's house even at midnight, along with another whose name is not given, these two being therefore supposed to have been the secretary's instruments in all this business. What is certain is, that Tresham did not fly like the rest when the "discovery" had taken place, not only remaining in London, and showing himself openly in the streets, but actually presenting himself to the council, and offering them his services. Moreover, though his name was known to the government, at least on November 7th, as one of the accomplices, it was for several days omitted from their published proclamations, and not till the 12th was he taken into custody. Being confined in the Tower, he was shortly attacked by a painful malady, and on December 23rd he died, as was officially announced, of a "strangury," as Salisbury a.s.sures Cornwallis "by a natural sickness, such as he hath been a long time subject to."[321] Throughout his sickness he himself and his friends loudly declared that should he survive it "they feared not the course of justice."[322] Such confidence, as Mr. Jardine remarks, could be grounded only on his possession of knowledge which the authorities would not venture to reveal, and it is not surprising that his death should have been attributed, by the enemies of the government, to poison. It is no doubt an argument against such a supposition that during his illness Tresham was allowed to be attended by his wife and a confidential servant. On the other hand, not only does Bishop Goodman inform us[323]

that "Butler, the great physician of Cambridge," declared him to have been poisoned; but the author of _Mischeefes Mystery_, a violent government partisan, contradicts the notion of a natural death, by a.s.serting that "Tresham murthered himself in the Tower."

It thus appears, once again, that the more its details are scrutinized, the less does the traditional history of the Plot commend itself to our acceptance. It is hard to believe that within the ranks of the conspirators themselves, there was no treachery, no one who, lending himself to work the ruin of his a.s.sociates, unwittingly wrought his own.

The evidence hitherto considered may fitly conclude with the testimony of a witness living near the time in question, who had evidently been at pains to make inquiries amongst those most likely to give information.

This is an anonymous correspondent of Anthony a Wood, whose notes are preserved in Fulman's collection in the library of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. These remarkable notes have been seen by Fulman, who inserted in the margin various questions and objections, to which the writer always supplied precise and definite replies. In the following version this supplementary information is incorporated in the body of his statement, being distinguished by italics. The writer, who explains that his full materials are in the country, speaks thus:[324]

"I should be glad to understand what your friend driveth at about the Fifth of November. It was, without all peradventure, a State Plot. I have collected many pregnant circ.u.mstances concerning it.

"'Tis certain that the last Earl of Salisbury[325] confessed to William Lenthal[326] it was his father's contrivance, which Lenthal soon after told one Mr. Webb (_John Webb, Esq._), a person of quality, and his kinsman, yet alive.

"Sir Henry Wotton says 'twas usual with Cecil to create plots, that he might have the honour of the discovery, or to such effect.

"The Lord Mounteagle knew there was a letter to be sent to him before it came. (_Known by Edmund Church, Esq., his confidant._)

"Sir Everard Digby's sons were both knighted soon after, and Sir Kenelm would often say it was a State design, to disengage the king of his promise to the Pope and the King of Spain, to indulge the Catholics if ever he came to be king here; and somewhat to his purpose was found in the Lord Wimbledon's papers after his death.[327]

"Mr. Vowell, who was executed in the Rump time, did also affirm it so.[328]

"Catesby's man (_George Bartlet_),[329] on his death-bed, confessed his master went to Salisbury House several nights before the discovery, and was always brought privately in at a back door."

Then, in answer to an objection of Fulman's, is added: "Catesby, 'tis like, did not mean to betray his friends or his own life--he was drawn in and made believe strange things. All good men condemn him and the rest as most desperate wretches; yet most believed the original contrivance of the Plot was not theirs."

Whatever else may be thought of the above statements, they at least serve to contradict Mr. Jardine's a.s.sertion,[330] that the notion of Cecil's complicity,--which he terms a strange suggestion, scarce worthy of notice,--was first heard of long after the transaction, and was adopted exclusively by Catholics. Clearly it was not unknown to Protestants who were contemporaries, or personally acquainted with contemporaries, of the event. Yet the doc.u.ment here cited was known to Mr. Jardine, who mentions one of its statements, that relating to Lord Monteagle, but says nothing of its more serious allegations.

It must also be remarked that we find some traces in the evidence which remains of certain mysterious conspirators of great importance, concerning whom no investigation whatever appears to have been made, they being at once permitted to drop into the profoundest obscurity, in a manner quite contrary to the habitual practice of the authorities.

One such instance is afforded by the testimony of a mariner, Henry Paris, of Barking,[331] that Guy Faukes, _alias_ Johnson, hired a boat of him, "wherein was carried over to Gravelines a man supposed of great import: he went disguised, and would not suffer any one man to go with him but this Vaux, nor to return with him. This Paris did attend for him back at Gravelines six weeks. If cause require there are several proofs of this matter." None of these, however, seem to have been sought.

FOOTNOTES:

[292] That of Mr. Pound.

[293] Jardine, _Criminal Trials_, ii. 38, n.

[294] _E.g._, the author of the _Politician's Catechism_.

[295] "About the time of my Lord Ess.e.x his enterprise he became Catholic" (_i.e._ 1601). Father Gerard, _Narrative_, p. 58.

[296] P.R.O. _Gunpowder Plot Book_, n. 4.

[297] Justice Grange, of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, to Salisbury, November 5th, 1605. Justices of Warwickshire, to the same, November 12th.

[298] MS., f. 31-32.

[299] Tanner MSS., _ut sup._, f. 167.