Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/71

Rh hour, to induce Tresham to join the plot for the sake of his wealth, his father having died some two months before the eventful 'fifth.' Tresham was born in 1568, educated at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and was involved in the Essex rebellion; for which outbreak he, or rather his father, was very heavily fined, and he narrowly escaped execution. He had also been a party to Father Garnet's schemes for obtaining aid from Spain. How this miserable Tresham was the traitor who was mainly instrumental in betraying his fellow-plotters, I shall show later.

Finally, it will be seen from a perusal of the above memoirs of the different conspirators that Robert Catesby, unscrupulous and cunning as he was, selected each one to join the plot on account of his possession of some special quality that would particularly forward the interests of the great design. Thus, Thomas Winter was chosen on account of his skill in languages and his soldierly reputation; Ambrose Rookewood on account of his wealth and his horses; the dishonest Percy on account of his position at Court and in Lord Northumberland's household; Sir Everard Digby on account of his social position, his friendship with influential Roman Catholics, and his wealth; Grant on account of his fortified house; Robert Winter on account of his wealth and his relationship to the Talbots, and other great Roman Catholic families; Faukes on account of his military qualities, and his face being