Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/40

34 scholar. Born in 1572, he spent the greater part of the last decade of Elizabeth's reign on the Continent, in fighting first in the Netherlands, curiously enough, against Spain, that very power to which most of his friends at home looked for aid. Before the period of the Essex rebellion, however, he had changed his politics, and we find him employed on a secret mission to Madrid, asking military aid from the Spanish King on behalf of the English Romanists, so soon as Elizabeth should die, or even beforehand. On this mission he seems to have been sent by the advice and direction of Lord Mounteagle and Father Garnet, after they and he had consulted with Tresham and Catesby. He was accompanied on his journey by Father Greenway, and on arriving at Madrid, placed his negotiations with the Spanish Government under the direction of Father Cresswell, S.J. On returning from this mission, he went across (in 1604) to Brussells, on a continuation of his errand, to visit the Constable of Castille, 'whose answer was,' according to Gerard, 'that he had strict command from his Majesty of Spain to all good offices for the Catholics; and for his own part, he thought himself bound in conscience so to do, and that no good occasion should be omitted. Thus much the Constable promised at that time. . . . But it is an easy matter to satisfy with hopes of