Chapter I: 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--Confession 219-236

CHAPTER XIII.

Threats of torture--Search at Mrs Vaux's house--Lady Digby's
letters to Salisbury--Sir Everard to his wife--Sir Everard
writes to Salisbury--Death of Tresham--Poem--Examinations 237-251

CHAPTER XIV.

Father Gerard's letter to Sir Everard--Sir Everard exonerates
Gerard--Sir Everard's letter to his sons 252-267

CHAPTER XV.

The trial--Appearance of the prisoners from different points
of view--Sir Edward Philips--Sir Edward Coke--His description
of the punishment for High Treason--Sir Everard's
speech--Coke's reply--Earl of Northampton--Lord
Salisbury--Sentence 268-288

CHAPTER XVI.

Waiting for death--Poem--Kind words for Sir Everard--The
injury he did to the Catholic cause--Two happy
days--Procession to the scaffold--Sir Everard's last
speech--Execution--Epilogue 289-306