Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/141

Rh Thomas Bates and Robert Winter 'craved mercy.' John Grant 'was a good while mute; yet after, submissively said, he was guilty of a conspiracy intended, but never effected.'

Ambrose Rookewood 'first excused his denial of the Indictment, for that he had rather lose his life than give it. Then did he acknowledge his offence to be so heinous, that he justly deserved the indignation of the King, and of the Lords, and the hatred of the whole commonwealth; yet could he not despair of mercy at the hands of a prince, so abounding in grace and mercy; and the rather, because his offence, though it were incapable of any excuse, yet not altogether incapable of some extenuation, in that he had been neither author, nor actor, but only persuaded and drawn in by Catesby, whom he loved above any worldly man: and that he had concealed it not for any malice to the person of the King, or to the State, or for any ambitious respect of his own, but only drawn with the tender respect, and the faithful and dear affection he bare to Mr. Catesby, his friend, whom he esteemed dearer than anything else in the world. And this mercy he desired not for any fear of the image of death, but for grief that so shameful a death should leave so perpetual a blemish and blot unto all ages, upon his name and blood. But, howsoever that this was his first offence, yet he humbly submitted himself to the mercy of the King; and prayed that the King would herein imitate God, who