Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/91

Rh refused to budge, and awaited the completion of their plot.

The authorship of the letter, strange to say, has never been discovered. Of the various claims made on behalf of certain persons, no convincing proof has ever been adduced in support of any one of them. That Percy was the author is not in the least likely. That the letter was not written by the person (or persons) who dictated, or inspired it, is almost certain. Neither Tresham, nor Mounteagle, would have been so foolish as to put pen to paper; yet either, or both, might have practically dictated it. According to one tradition, it was written by Anne Vaux, daughter of Lord Vaux, the faithful friend of Father Garnet; according to another, it was written by Mrs. Abington, another devout Roman Catholic lady friendly with the Jesuits, and sister to Lord Mounteagle.

That the letter was actually written by Father Oldcorne, S.J., is an unsupported theory, and it is not in his handwriting. I conclude that the letter was written very shortly after Tresham's futile visit to White Webbs; for Tresham was not in London at the exact time of its delivery, and had evidently just gone into the country to establish an alibi should he, as indeed fell out,