Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/287

Rh subservience to Lord Salisbury. I also quote from other papers, derived from the same source, regarding the capture of Lyttleton and Winter at Hagley, the closing of the Ports, etc.

As an unraveller of plots, Sir William Waad certainly seems to have enjoyed a unique career. He had, in fact, been connected with the detection, or attempted detection, of almost every conspiracy hatched in England during the eventful twenty years antecedent to the Gunpowder Plot. He had ransacked the belongings of Mary, Queen of Scots, at the time of Babington's conspiracy; he had taken a prominent part in the discovery of the mysterious Lopez affair; he had helped to suppress the Essex rebellion; he had been employed in the matter of the proceedings of Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Ralegh, as regards their connection with Father Watson's conspiracy. He was, therefore, likely to prove, in the eyes of the Government, an ideal gaoler for the conspirators and Jesuits captured after the failure of the Gunpowder Treason, as well as for Sir Walter Ralegh.

II Waad to Salisbury, August 17, 1605, relating to his installation as Lieutenant of the Tower:—

'My Lord Treasurer and my Lord of Devonshire met at the Tower on Monday at three of the clock in the afternoon and gave me