Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/206

180 English Jesuits, was brought to trial and executed. Though he had shrunk from all part in the plot, its existence had been made known to him by another Jesuit, Greenway; and, horror-stricken as he represented himself to have been, he had kept the secret and left the Parliament to its doom.'

Dr. Franck Bright:—'The trial of Garnet was more difficult, but his knowledge of the plot was at last proved by a conversation between himself and one of his fellow-prisoners, treacherously devised and overheard. It is probable that he might even then have escaped his fate, had it not been for his open avowal of the lawfulness of equivocation and mental reservation on any point which might criminate himself. This destroyed all credit in his assertions, and took from him all chance of popular sympathy.'

Father E. L. Taunton: :—'There seems to have been some kind of desire on the part of the King not to proceed to extremities; but Garnet's avowals on the subject of equivocation practically settled his fate; for it was found obviously impossible to believe a word he said.'

Hallam:—'Whether the offence of Garnet went beyond misprision of treason has been much controverted. The Catholic writers maintain that he had no knowledge of the conspiracy, except by having heard it in confession. But this rests altogether on his word; and the prevarication of which he had proved to be guilty (not to mention the damning circumstance that he was taken at Henlip in concealment along