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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                          15-32


CHAPTER III.

    The wrench of conversion--Position of converts at different
    periods--The Digbys as converts--Their chapel--Father
    Strange--Father Percy--Chapels in the days of
    persecution--Luisa de Carvajal--Oliver Manners--Pious
    dodges--Stolen waters--Persecution under Elizabeth             33-48


CHAPTER IV.

    The succession to the Crown--Accession of James--The Bye
    Plot--Guy Fawkes--Father Watson's revenge on the
    Jesuits--Question as to the faithlessness of
    James--Martyrdoms and persecutions--A Protestant Bishop upon
    them                                                           49-69

CHAPTER V.

    Catholics and the Court--Queen Anne of Denmark--Fears of the
    Catholics--Catesby--Chivalry--Tyringham--The Spanish
    Ambassador--Attitude of foreign Catholic powers--Indictments
    of Catholics--Pound's case--Bancroft--Catesby and
    Garnet--Thomas Winter--William Ellis--Lord Vaux--Elizabeth,
    Anne, and Eleanor Vaux--Calumnies                              70-96


CHAPTER VI.

    Roger Manners--A pilgrimage--Harrowden--Catesby informs Sir
    Everard of the Conspiracy--Scriptural precedents--Other
    Gunpowder Plots--Mary Queen of Scots, Bothwell and
    Darnley--Pretended Jesuit approval                            97-113


CHAPTER VII.

    A Latin Book--Immoderate friendships--Principles--Second-hand
    approval--How Catesby deceived Garnet--He deceived his
    fellow-conspirators--A liar                                  114-129


CHAPTER VIII.

    Garnet's unfortunate conversation with Sir Everard--Garnet's
    weakness--How Garnet first learned about the Plot--Secresy of
    the Confessional--Catesby and the Sacraments--Catesby a
    Catholic on Protestant principles--Could Garnet have saved
    Sir Everard?--Were the conspirators driven to
    desperation?--Did Cecil originate the Plot?                  130-148


CHAPTER IX.

    Financial aspects of the Gunpowder Plot--Sir Everard's
    relations to his wife--Little John--Secret room at
    Gothurst--Persecution of Catholics in Wales--The plan of
    Campaign--Coughton--Guy Fawkes--His visit to Gothurst        149-168


CHAPTER X.

    White Webbs--Baynham's Mission--All-Hallows at Coughton--All
    Souls at Gothurst--An unwelcome Guest--The remains of
    feudalism--Start from Gothurst--Arrival at Dunchurch--What
    was going on in London--Tresham--The hunting-party--A
    card-party--Arrival of the fugitives--The discovery in
    London--The flight                                           169-191


CHAPTER XI.

    Catesby lies to Sir Everard--Expected help from Talbot--The
    hunting-party repudiates the conspirators--The future Earl of
    Bristol--The start--Warwick--Norbrook--Alcester--Coughton--
    Huddington--Talbot refuses to join in the Insurrection--Father
    Greenway--Father Oldcorne--Whewell Grange--Shadowed--No
    Catholics will join the conspirators--Don Quixote            192-218


CHAPTER XII.

    Holbeche House--Sir Everard deserts--Sir Fulke Greville--The
    Hue-and-Cry--Hunted--In cover--Caught--Journey to
    London--Confiscation--The fate of the conspirators at
    Holbeche--The Archpriest--Denunciations--Letter of Sir
    Everard--