Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/69

Rh at Belvoir Castle. His joining Catesby in such a scheme as the Gunpowder Treason was, therefore, an act of base ingratitude to a monarch who had been specially kind to him, notwithstanding his known recusancy. On arranging to join the conspirators, Sir Everard Digby contributed a sum, equivalent in our money to nearly ten thousand pounds, to its support.

Sir Everard Digby was, in personal appearance, tall and handsome, and of pleasing manners and address. He is described as having been 'extremely modest,' and as 'one of the finest gentlemen in England.' Father Gerard, his intimate friend, mentions that 'in gifts of mind he excelled much more than in his natural parts; although in those also it were hard to find so many in one man in such a measure. But of wisdom he had an extraordinary talent, such a judicial wit, and so well able to discern and discourse of any matter, as truly as I have heard many say they have not seen the like of a young man, and that his carriage and manner of discourse were more like to a grave Councillor of State than to a gallant of the Court.' This panegyric from a Jesuit source must, however, be accepted cum grano, and I agree with Jardine that neither his conduct nor his letters justify this applause.' He appears, indeed, to have been a mere tool in