Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/191

Rh devilishly to destroy them all, and piecemeal to tear them in asunder, without respect of majesty, dignity, and degree, age, or place. And for that purpose, a great quantity of gunpowder was traitorously and secretly placed and hid by these Conspirators under the Parliament-House.'

To this indictment, 'Garnet did plead Not Guilty,' and the trial proceeded.

That Garnet was not likely to receive a fair trial was evident even from the absurd terms of the indictment, in which he was actually treated as an open conspirator, whose active complicity in the plot was as pronounced as that of Guy Faukes. Notwithstanding the nature of the odds against him, the prisoner defended himself with skill, so far as his connection with the plot was concerned; but the chief difficulty he experienced in clearing himself resulted from the effects of the perjury committed by him in the Tower. He had, indeed, lied through thick and thin to such an extent that at last he found himself caught in the meshes of his own nets. It was impossible to place the least reliance on anything he said, or had said. Romanists were disgusted as much as Protestants with his perjury. That he had known of the plot outside the Confessional admitted of no doubt, and that, although he disapproved tacitly of the whole business, he had done nothing to prevent its being brought to maturity also admitted of no doubt. The man who was so horrified at Father Watson's