Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/268

238 and Baynham. We are, therefore, left with Gerard, Baldwin, Morgan, Greenway, John Winter, and Hammond, into whose cases (as regards their complicity in the Gunpowder Plot) I shall now inquire; whilst I propose also to consider the question of the innocence, or guilt, of Anne Vaux, and Nicholas Owen, nicknamed 'Little John.' Yielding precedence to the fair sex, I will first take the case of

.—This lady was the third daughter of William, Lord Vaux of Harrowden, by his first wife, Elizabeth Beaumont. The date of her birth has not come down to us, but for several years prior to 1605, she had been living entirely under the direction of the Jesuits, for whom she ever expressed the warmest admiration. She put herself under a vow of blind obedience to Father Garnet and his society, and followed him about like a pet dog whenever she could safely do so, going often, in these adventures, under the alias of 'Mrs. Perkins.' This close intimacy with Garnet caused considerable scandal. At Garnet's execution, some one in the crowd having taunted him with this, he protested in reply that 'this honourable gentlewoman hath great wrong by such false reports. And for my own part, as I have always been free from such crimes, so I may protest for her upon my conscience that I think her to be a perfect pure