Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/239

Rh confessed: 'It is so lewdly given out that he (Mounteagle) was once of this plot of powder, and afterwards betrayed it all to me.'

11. Thomas Warde, the 'confidential gentleman' employed in Mounteagle's household, was a friend of several of the plotters, and gave them warning as to their danger.

12. Mounteagle's evident apprehension lest Tresham (when in the Tower) should explain the secret relations existing between the pair during October (1605).

13. Mounteagle was an ally of the Jesuit faction among the English Romanists.

In face of these fatal thirteen reasons, therefore, strong as they are, it seems idle to pretend that Lord Mounteagle had no connection with the plot. His receipt of the warning letter was no sudden surprise, but the last act in a 'little comedy,' which he, Cecil, Tresham and (evidently) Warde, had been busily rehearsing for days past. Such a subtle method of clearing himself and currying favour with the Government was entirely in keeping with the character of this man. All his life he seemed to be sailing under false colours. He was untruthful and unfaithful in all matters of both public and private import. At heart a Roman Catholic, he, nevertheless, implored James to believe that he was a good Protestant.