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
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