Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/52

42 Northumberland in the Tower, and to impose upon him a colossal fine.

In private life, Thomas Percy was a very different person from the bigoted Guy Faukes. Percy was not even commonly honest in money matters, for he had robbed his patron over the collection of the Alnwick rents, and projected doing so again on a larger scale as a means of raising money for the plot. He was a restless, aggressive, inquisitive man, and led such a prominent public life that he was ill-fitted to play the part of a conspirator. To have refrained from receiving him as a member of the gang would, however, have been almost as dangerous as to admit him; for he would have racked his brains to find out what was going on, and his jealousy might have procured Catesby's arrest. Boisterous, arrogant, and domineering, his movements were of the most rapid and untiring description; nothing stood in his way when he wanted anything done, or when he wanted to take a journey; one day he was in London dining with his patron, another he was en route, post haste, for Alnwick. That he stood high in his patron's favour is evident, otherwise his unpopularity, and indifferent character would have prevented him retaining his appointments under the northern Earl, whose retainers complained of Percy's harsh treatment of them; whilst on the eve of the Gunpowder