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CABINET

HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

BOOK VII.-Continued.

A.D. 1606-1660.

CHAPTER I.—Continued.

JAMES I.-Continued.

BEFORE Fawkes and the other conspirators were led to the scaffold, the Jesuit Garnet was on his way to the Tower, having been discovered hid in a secret chamber at Hendlip, near Worcester, the seat of Thomas Abingdon, who had married the sister of Lord Mounteagle.* The other two Jesuits, Gerard and Greenway, after many adventures, effected their escape to the continent. Garnet, who at some former time had been well known to Cecil, was treated in the Tower with comparative leniency; and, from an expression of regret used by a dignitary of the Protestant church, who afterwards became a bishop, we may presume that he was never laid upon the rack. But his companion Hall, or Oldcorn, another Jesuit, who was found in the same hiding-place at Hendlip, Garnet's confidential servant Owen, and another servant called Chambers, appear to have been tortured without mercy, as also without effect-for no one

The finding of Garnet and his friend Hall, or Oldcorn, in the curious old mansion-house, is one of the most romantic incidents we are acquainted with. Mr. Jardine has given the full account.--See Criminal Trials.

VOL. X.

B

of them would confess anything of importance against Garnet or any other Jesuit or priest. Owen, after undergoing the minor torments, in order to escape the rack, with which he was threatened on the next examination, tore open his bowels with a blunt knife, which he had obtained by a stratagem, and died true to his master. Whatever was the extent of Garnet's guilt, or of the moral obliquity which he derived from the crafty order to which he belonged, he was indisputably a man of extraordinary learning and ability: he baffled all the court lawyers and cunningest statesmen in twenty successive examinations. They could never get an advantage over him, nor drive him into a contradiction or an admission unfavourable to his case.* But in the congenial atmosphere of the Tower a certain craft had attained to the highest perfection; and there has scarcely been a device fancied by romance-writers, but was put into actual operation within those horrible walls. Some of the most revolting practices of the Inquisition may be traced in this English state prison. Garnet's keeper of a sudden pretended to be his friend,-to venerate him as a martyr; and he offered, at his own great hazard, to convey any letters the prisoner might choose to write to his friends. Garnet intrusted to him several letters, which were all carried to the council, as were also the answers to them; but so cautious was the Jesuit, that there was nothing in this correspondence to weigh against him. Failing in this experiment, the lieutenant of the Tower removed Hall, or Oldcorn, to a cell next to that of his friend Garnet, and they were both informed by the keeper, who recommended extreme caution and secrecy, that, by opening a concealed door, they might easily converse together. The temptation was irresistible, and both the

* Coke, in his speech on Garnet's trial, said he was one having "many excellent gifts and endowments of nature: by birth a gentleman, by education a scholar, by art learned, and a good linguist." The whole of this English Jesuit's history is interesting. At one time he gained his livelihood in London by correcting the press for Tottel, the celebrated printer.

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Jesuits fell into the trap. Edward Forset, a man of some learning, and a magistrate, and Locherson, a secretary of Cecil's, who had tried his ears before at eaves-dropping, were placed in such a position between the two cells that they could overhear nearly every word the prisoners uttered; and as they conversed they took notes of all that was said. Their main subject was how they should arrange their defence. Garnet said that he must needs confess that he had been at White-Webbs, in Enfield Chase, with the conspirators, but that he would maintain that he had not been there since Bartholomew-tide. “And in truth,” said he, “I am well persuaded that I shall wind myself out of this matter." On the following day the conversation was renewed, the eaves-droppers being at their post as before. Garnet said several things which went to connect him with the conspirators; and he told Hall that, at the next visitation of the commissioners, they must both "expect either to go to the rack, or to pass quietly with the rest. He also added, that he had heard that one James, or Johnson, had been upon the rack for three hours. In the third conversation, Hall, or Öldcorn, related how he had been examined, and what he had said. Garnet said, "If they examine me any more, I will urge them to bring proofs against me, for they speak of three or four witnesses." In a fourth conversation there dropped nothing of any consequence. But the commissioners thought that they had already enough to drive the matter home. Garnet had hitherto denied all acquaintance with the first stages of the plot: he and Oldcorn were now charged with their own words; and at first they boldly denied having uttered them. Oldcorn, however, confessed to their truth on the rack. Still Garnet held out; and, when showed Oldcorn's examination, he said that his friend might accuse himself falsely, but that he would not accuse himself. According to the Catholic account, he was then led to the rack, and made sundry admissions to escape torture; but according to government documents, which, we need hardly say, are in many essentials open to doubt, he began to confess from his inward conviction that it

would be of no use to persist in denying a fact, avowed by Oldcorn, and supported by Forset and Locherson. After much subtilizing and equivocating, he was driven to admit that, when Fawkes went over to Flanders, he had given him a recommendatory letter to his brother Jesuit, Baldwin; and, finally, that the design of blowing up the Parliament House with gunpowder had been revealed to him, as far back as the month of July of the preceding year, by Greenway, who had received it in confession from Catesby, and, as he believed, from Thomas Winter also. But he added that he had earnestly endeavoured to dissuade Catesby, and desired Greenway to do the same. He further stated that Catesby had at one time propounded a question to him, in general terms, as to the lawfulness of a design meant to promote the Catholic religion, in the execution of which it would be necessary to destroy a few Catholic friends together with a great many heretical enemies. And he said that, in ignorance of what Catesby's design really was, he had replied, that, "in case the object was clearly good, and could be effected by no other means, it might be lawful among many nocents to destroy some innocents." Oldcorn, who was no longer of any use, was now sent down to Worcester, with Mr. Abington, the owner of the house at Hendlip, and a priest named Strange, to be tried by a special commission. Abington, whose sole offence appears to have been the concealment of the two Jesuits, received the king's pardon, through his brother-in-law, Lord Mounteagle; Öldcorn and Strange, together with several other persons, were executed.

On the 3rd of March "Henry Garnet, superior to the Jesuits in England," was put upon his trial for high treason, before a special commission in Guildhall. Coke had again a grand opportunity for display, and he spoke for some hours. When the Jesuit replied, he was not permitted so much space. Coke interrupted him continually; the commissioners on the bench interrupted him; and James, who seems to have felt a respect for his powers of argument and eloquence, declared that the Jesuit had not fair play allowed him. Garnet pleaded that he had

done his best to prevent the execution of the powder treason; and that he could not, by the laws of his church, reveal any secret which had been received under the sacred seal of confession. He carried himself very gravely and temperately, and half charmed that immense audience; but, upon the evidence of the depositions obtained in the Tower, and the oaths of Forset and Locherson, a verdict of guilty was returned, and the lord chief justice pronounced the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering. During the whole trial they extracted nothing from the Jesuit: they had expected great discoveries, but they made none.* Instead, therefore, of being hurried to execution, Garnet was kept six weeks in prison, during which the greatest efforts were made to wring further avowals from him, and to lead him to a declaration of the principles of the society to which he belonged. In the first purpose they entirely failed, but in the second they partially succeeded; and, if the declarations concerning equivocation were fairly obtained, and if he expressed his real feelings, the Jesuit certainly entertained" opinions as inconsistent with all good government as they were contrary to sound morality."t It happened, however, rather unfortunately, that King James, and his ministers, and their predecessors, had made opinions nearly allied to those of the Jesuit the fixed rules of at least their political conduct. Garnet was executed on the 3rd of May; and Cecil got the order of the Garter as a reward for his exertions in the detection of the plot and his "constant dealing in matters of religion." Several other Catholics were put to death in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties; some for being personally concerned, some for harbouring priests and proclaimed traitors. There were other victims of a more elevated rank, but not one of these was punished capitally. The Earl of Northumberland, the kinsman of the traitor Percy, was seized on the first discovery of the plot, and committed to the care of the Archbishop of

* "I was assured there was nothing that was not known before by the confessions of those that were executed."Letter of Sir Allan Percy to Sir Dudley Carleton.

† Jardine.

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