Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/261

Rh there had been, of necessity, so much mystery and secrecy, it surely may be forgiven the poor harassed writer if he makes a slip now and then in the precise chronological order in which certain of the plotters were quietly enrolled! Catesby, probably, alone knew of the exact data when all the various plotters took the required oath, and Catesby, it need not be repeated, was dead! But, even if Thomas Winter had never confessed at all, the history of this great Treason, as handed down to us, would not thereby have been affected, for Winter's information merely corroborates what has been ascertained from other sources in verification of the traditional story of the Gunpowder Plot.

This confession shows us into what a state of desperation the English Roman Catholics had been driven soon after the accession of James, from whom they had expected so much, but received nothing of what they had expected. It was not until they found that no concession was likely to be forthcoming from James, and (after that) no aid was likely to be forthcoming from Spain, that they set about the concoction of their diabolical scheme.

There is one important item in Winter's confession of which, perhaps, insufficient notice has been taken by writers dealing with the Plot, and this is his reference to the probable, if not absolutely certain innocence of Sir William Stanley, as to whom the British Government would