Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/326

294 Lord Treasurer, the Lord Admiral, the Earls of Worcester, Northampton, and Salisbury, he made his report what he had seen and observed there; noting that Monteagle had told him, that he no sooner heard Thomas Percy named to be the possessor of that house, but considering both his backwardness in religion, and the old dearness of friendship between him and the said Percy, he did greatly suspect the matter, and that the letter should come from him. The said Lord Chamberlain also told, that he did not wonder a little at the extraordinary great provision of wood and coal in that house, where Thomas Percy had so seldom occasion to remain; as likewise it gave him in his mind, that his man looked a very tall and desperate fellow.

'This could not but increase the King's former apprehension and jealousy; whereupon, he insisted as before, that the house was narrowly to be searched, and that those billets and coals should be searched to the bottom, it being most suspicious that they were laid there only for covering of the powder. Of this same mind also were all the counsellors then present; but upon the fashion of making of the search was it long debated: For, upon the one side, they were all so jealous of the King's safety, that they all agreed that there could not be too much caution used for preventing his danger; and yet, upon the other part, they were all extreme loth and dainty, that in case this letter should prove to be nothing