Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/125

Rh but this most important statement was deliberately omitted by the counsel for the Crown at his trial, so that the spectators in Court went away under the impression that Gerard was an accessory to the crime. But, before dealing with the admissions wrung from the tortured Faukes, it will be best to notice the case of Francis Tresham, whose earthly career was now nearing its end.

It is a significant fact that Tresham's name was omitted from the proclamation quoted above. Probably, Lord Mounteagle did his best to screen his relative so long as he could, and it was not until more than a week after Guy Faukes's arrest that Tresham shared the same fate. In the Tower he soon became ill, and died on December 23. The cause of his death has been, and is still, the subject of much debate. Both Lord Salisbury and Sir William Waad (the Lieutenant of the Tower) declared that Tresham died of an internal complaint, from which he had a long time been suffering, and that he was a dying man when he entered the Tower of London.

Rumour, however, attributed his end to poison. That his death was extremely opportune, so far as Mounteagle's position was concerned, need not be disputed. It is clear that Tresham not only 'knew too much' to suit both Salisbury and Mounteagle; and of his possession of this knowledge he foolishly made no secret. Against the