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.

of them would confess anything of importance ag
Garnet or any other Jesuit or priest. Owen, after un
going the minor torments, in order to escape the
with which he was threatened on the next examina
tore open his bowels with a blunt knife, which he
obtained by a stratagem, and died true to his ma
Whatever was the extent of Garnet's guilt, or of the
ral obliquity which he derived from the crafty ord
which he belonged, he was indisputably a man of e
ordinary learning and ability: he baffled all the
lawyers and cunningest statesmen in twenty succe
examinations. They could never get an advantage
him, nor drive him into a contradiction or an adm
But in the congenial
unfavourable to his case.*
sphere of the Tower a certain craft had attained t
highest perfection; and there has scarcely been
vice fancied by romance-writers, but was put into
operation within those horrible walls. Some of the
revolting practices of the Inquisition may be trac
this English state prison. Garnet's keeper of a s
pretended to be his friend,-to venerate him as a ma
and he offered, at his own great hazard, to conve
letters the prisoner might choose to write to his fr
Garnet intrusted to him several letters, which we
carried to the council, as were also the answers to
but so cautious was the Jesuit, that there was nothi
this correspondence to weigh against him. Faili
this experiment, the lieutenant of the Tower re
Hall, or Oldcorn, to a cell next to that of his
Garnet, and they were both informed by the keeper
recommended extreme caution and secrecy, tha
opening a concealed door, they might easily conve
gether. The temptation was irresistible, and bo

* Coke, in his speech on Garnet's trial, said he w
having "many excellent gifts and endowments of natu
birth a gentleman, by education a scholar, by art le
The whole of this English
and a good linguist."
history is interesting. At one time he gained his live
in London by correcting the press for Tottel, the cele
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 ut-
tered; and as they conversed they took notes of all that
was said.
Their main subject was how they should ar-
range 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 commis-
sioners, 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 Ŏldcorn, 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 conse-
quence. 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 ut-
tered 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 him-
self. 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