Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/87

Rh Why he should have suddenly changed his politics, and, ostensibly, at any rate, his religion on the accession of the King of Scots it is difficult to tell; but he undoubtedly proffered the most fervent protestations of loyalty to the new monarch, to whom he pretended that he wished to become a Protestant. But that he ever was anything but a Roman Catholic at heart need not be disputed. He merely conformed outwardly to the dominant faith for political reasons, and for the protection of his purse. In this position he did not stand alone, for there were then in England hundreds of prominent Roman Catholics who pursued the same course. On his death-bed he received the last rites of the Roman Church.

Notwithstanding his altered life, Mounteagle did not cease to keep up his friendship with Catesby, Tresham, and the Winters. In fact, he frequently met Catesby from the time of the construction of the plot down till the autumn of 1605. This is a circumstance that has been conveniently ignored by those writers who maintain that he was not in any way privy to what was going on among his old allies. That he may, all the time, have been acting, as has been suggested, as a spy on the part of Cecil is probable; but it would, indeed, be strange if a person connected as he was by ties of blood and