Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/93

Rh as were all the persons involved in the conspiracy, such men, like all Jesuit-ridden individuals, would hardly have moved in any specially important undertaking without seeking the advice of their confessor. Tresham, therefore, probably consulted one of the Jesuits, either in or out of the confessional. Tresham's denial that he (Tresham) wrote the letter is, of course, valueless; for he naturally would never have confessed to an act which conduced to the capture of his friends. He was, moreover, an adept in the art of equivocation, in which he had been instructed by so proficient a tutor as Father Garnet himself. On his death-bed he astonished even Cecil by the recklessness of his perjury.

Meanwhile, to the ordinary reader of the traditional story, it must seem incredible that if on October 27 the leading conspirators realized that they had been betrayed, and if Cecil knew of the existence of their treason,—the conspirators should have proceeded with their scheme, with the Government making no attempt to arrest them. The reasons for both these extraordinary courses are easily forthcoming. Catesby, finding that no names had been mentioned in the letter, thought that Salisbury would never 'guess' the secret. He sent Faukes, apparently without telling him of the terrible risk he ran, to examine the premises beneath the Parliament House. Faukes reported he could tell, by means of certain secret marks invented by himself to discover