Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/211

 CHAPTER XVII LORD SALISBURY'S ACCOUNT OF THE PLOT OBERT CECIL, Earl of Salisbury, Secretary of State, has left behind him an account of the Plot, which may certainly claim to be the earliest historical record of the great event, for the manuscript is dated only four days later than the fatal fifth of November. This account is contained in a letter sent by him to Sir Charles Cornwallis, the British Ambassador in Spain. I reproduce below the whole of the despatch, which is of great interest and historical importance— 'It hath pleased Almighty God out of his singular goodness to bring to light the most cruel and detestable Conspiracy against the person of his Majesty and the whole state of this Realm that ever was conceived by the heart of man, at any time or in any place whatsoever. By the practice there was intended not only the extirpation of the King's Majesty and his royal issue, but the whole subversion and downfall of