Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/145

Rh As will be seen by their perusal, Digby, notwithstanding the clever way in which he fenced with the Lords of the Council, had frequently been, during the nine months preceding the plot, in the company of Fathers Garnet and Greenway, as well as of Gerard. Moreover, he does not seem to consider that his share in the plot was a crime, and expresses his intense surprise that the majority of his co-religionists regarded the proceedings of himself and his friends with horror. Beyond all doubt, too, he seems to have thought that the English Jesuits not only knew of the plot, but secretly approved of it, for he writes of his ' certain belief that those which were best able to judge of the lawfulness of it, had been acquainted with it, and given way unto it. More reasons I had to persuade me to this belief than I dare utter!' When, therefore, the Jesuit apologists pretend that Father Garnet did not receive a fair trial, and was unjustly condemned, they should remember that had this paper of Digby's, from which the above extract is taken, been produced at Garnet's trial, it would have afforded damning evidence against him, in regard to his being absolutely possessed of certain information as to Catesby's conspiracy.

THE LETTERS

'The Several Papers and Letters of Sir Everard Digby which are (as we have been credibly informed) the Original Papers and