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THE LIFE OF A CONSPIRATOR


[Illustration: SIR EVERARD DIGBY
_From a portrait belonging to W. R. M. Wynne, Esq. of Peniarth, Merioneth_]


THE LIFE OF A CONSPIRATOR

Being a Biography of Sir Everard Digby by One of His Descendants

by the author of
"A Life of Archbishop Laud," By a Romish Recusant, "The
Life of a Prig, by One," etc.

With Illustrations







London
Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co., Ltd.
Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road
1895




PREFACE


The chief difficulty in writing a life of Sir Everard Digby is to steer
clear of the alternate dangers of perverting it into a mere history of
the Gunpowder Plot, on the one hand, and of failing to say enough of
that great conspiracy to illustrate his conduct, on the other. Again, in
dealing with that plot, to condemn all concerned in it may seem like
kicking a dead dog to Protestants, and to Catholics like joining in one
of the bitterest and most irritating taunts to which they have been
exposed in this country throughout the last three centuries.
Nevertheless, I am not discouraged. The Gunpowder Plot is an historical
event about which the last word has not yet been said, nor is likely to
be said for some time to come; and monographs of men who were, either
directly or indirectly, concerned in it, may not be altogether useless
to those who desire to make a study of it. However faulty the following
pages may be in fact or in inference, they will not have been written in
vain if they have the effect of eliciting from others that which all
students of historical subjects ought most to desire--the Truth.

I wish to acknowledge most valuable assistance received from the Right
Rev. Edmund Knight, formerly Bishop of Shrewsbury, as well as from the
Rev. John Hungerford Pollen, S.J., who was untiring in his replies to my
questions on some very difficult points; but it is only fair to both of
them to say that the inferences they draw from the facts, which I have
brought forward, occasionally vary from my own. My thanks are also due
to that most able, most courteous, and most patient of editors, Mr Kegan
Paul, to say nothing of his services in the very different capacity of a
publisher, to Mr Wynne of Peniarth, for permission to photograph his
portrait of Sir Everard Digby, and to Mr Walter Carlile for information
concerning Gayhurst.

The names of the authorities of which I have made most use are given in
my footnotes; but I am perhaps most indebted to one whose name does not
appear the oftenest. The back-bone of every work dealing with the times
of the Stuarts must necessarily be the magnificent history of Mr Samuel
Rawson Gardiner.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I.
                                                                    PAGE
    The portrait of Sir Everard Digby--Genealogy--His father a
    literary man--His father's book--Was Sir Everard brought up a
    Protestant?--At the Court of Queen Elizabeth--Persecution of
    Catholics--Character of Sir Everard--Gothurst--Mary
    Mulsho--Marriage--Knighthood                                    1-14


CHAPTER II.

    Hospitality at Gothurst--Roger Lee--Sir Everard "Catholickly
    inclined"--Country visiting 300 years ago--An absent
    host--A good hostess--Wish to see a priest--Priest or
    sportsman?--Father Gerard--Reception of Lady Digby--Question
    of Underhandedness--Illness of Sir Everard--Conversion--Second
    Illness--Impulsiveness of Sir Everard