Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/310

280 delivering Catesby and his little band of Roman Catholic gentlemen into the hands of the heretics.

But, supposing that Garnet was either directly or indirectly the cause of getting written the famous letter to Mounteagle, we have to ask ourselves the question Why was his life not spared? Why, also, did he afterwards pray at Coughton (November 1, 1605), for the success of something which was to happen at the opening of the Parliament?

The answer to these queries is not so difficult to seek. His life was not spared, because he dared not, in the Tower, reveal his share in giving warning for the reasons already mentioned, namely, he would then be accused by the Privy Council, since he had known so much, of having been a conspirator himself; and he would then be regarded as a traitor and as a sacrilegious priest by his fellow-Papists. With regard to his prayer at Coughton, I take it that this prayer was a cry of despair. He invoked the aid of Heaven to save the Roman Catholic cause in England. The plotters foolishly had not fled, the Parliament House might or might not be blown up, and he and his helpless friends were left face to face with a most serious crisis. His anxiety, when in the Tower, to communicate with Anne Vaux strengthens the theory that there was something secret between them, upon which it was necessary for them to consult. He was afraid lest Anne should incriminate him in any