Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/22

8 discontent from the same causes as Cobham and Raleigh, was induced by Watson to join the conspiracy, under the impression that a strong catholic body was engaged in it. He agreed to furnish a troop of a hundred horse, but he was not long in discovering that he had been imposed upon, and advised the conspirators to defer the execution of their design to a more favourable opportunity.

The conspirators proposed to meet during the darkness of night at Greenwich; but the reflection that there wore three hundred armed gentlemen within the palace, made that appear too hazardous; they, therefore, altered their plan, and concluded to seize James as he was hunting at Hanworth, and where he was accustomed to call for refreshment at a gentleman's house. The plan, as communicated by Watson to the conspirators, was to assemble in a numerous body under pretence of presenting a petition to the king as he went out hunting, seize the king, and convey him to a place of safety, where they were to extort from him a declaration of liberty of conscience. With the king in their lands, they would then wreak their vengeance on Cecil and Sir George Howe; and it was afterwards charged against them in the indictment, that they meant to make Watson lord chancellor, Brooke, the brother of Cobham—who was a most unprincipled man, and has been suspected of being Cecil's spy and tool on the occasion—lord treasurer, Markham secretary, and Grey earl marshal. Probably this was the scheme devised for them by the accusers, for it appeals too wild for belief; but be that as it may, the 24th of June was the day named for the attempt, when the refusal of lord Grey caused it to be abandoned, and the bodies separated with much mutual recrimination.

But Watson had already proceeded to a length which led to the revelation of the plot to Cecil. He had endeavoured to engage in it the society of the Jesuits, and had communicated his plans to a Jesuit of the name of Gerard. The society not only refused to sanction the conspiracy, but the arch-priest went at once and revealed it to Cecil. The crafty minister kept his information close, and resolved to let the conspirators go on till the very day for the execution of their design, so that he might the more summarily conflict them; but the failure of their plan left him no further reason for delay, and Anthony Copley, one of the "Bye," was arrested, as a man well known to be of a timid character, and likely in his terror to betray his associates. Cecil had probably plenty of intelligence of both the plan and its agitators, from others as well is from Gerard, and most probably from Brooke. But he neglected no means of making the conspirators furnish evidence against each other, and thus keeping his own sources of knowledge secret. On the heels of Copley's arrest, followed, as a natural consequence, the arrest of Griffin, Markham, the priests Watson and Clarke, and the rest of Copley's associates. Cecil said that the mere fact of Brooke being in the conspiracy made him feel certain that Cobham, Raleigh, and Northumberland were in it.

Northumberland was already in custody on another charge, but he was called before the council, and nothing appearing against him, he was soon after discharged. Cecil met Raleigh on the terrace at Windsor, and begged him to accompany him to the council then sitting. Raleigh followed him, and was immediately questioned as to certain private intercourse of his friend Cobham with the ambassador Aremberg. Raleigh denied any knowledge of such intercourse or overtures on the part of Cobham, but he advised the apprehension of La Rensie, the agent of Aremberg, as the more likely person to give evidence, if such dealings existed. Sir Walter was dismissed; and he asserts that Cecil himself appeared to discourage any summons of La Rensie, alleging that such an act would give offence to Aremberg, and that the king did not wish that this should be the case. But Raleigh, uneasy in his mind after his return from the council, wrote to Cecil—evidently to give an air of innocence to himself—that if La Rensie was not secured, he would fly, and the truth would not be discovered; at the same time suggesting this difficulty, that if La Rensie were then arrested, it would excite suspicion in lord Cobham. This was as much as to say that Cobham had such dealings, or why should the summons of La Rensie to the council affect him? At the same time Raleigh wrote to Cobham to apprise him of his danger, and his letter was intercepted by Cecil. Cecil, both at the trial and in his letter to Winwood, protests that no question was asked of Raleigh before the council respecting Cobham, till he had voluntarily introduced his name; and that in his intercepted letter to Cobham, he had said, that having exculpated Cobham, let Cobham pursue the same course towards him, and then no harm could happen; for whatever La Rensie might confess would be only the evidence of a single witness, and would be inadequate to a legal conviction.

Cobham was then summoned before the council on the 16th of July, and then and on the 19th underwent a strict examination; but he stoutly denied every charge advanced against him. On the 20th he was called upon to answer interrogatories prepared in writing, but he gave the same answers. On this Raleigh's letter to Cecil was put into his hands, on which Cobham indignantly exclaimed—"That wretch! that traitor, Raleigh! hath he used me thus! Nay, then, I will tell you all." He then confessed that he had been led by the persuasions of Raleigh, and on his assurances that the present state of things would soon be broken up, to open this communication with Aremberg, and that it had been arranged that he, Cobham, should proceed to Spain, and on his return visit Raleigh in his government in Jersey, where they should decide on ultimate proceedings, with aid of money from Spain.

Thus Cecil had induced these two friends to accuse each other, and had them both sent to the Tower to abide their trial. Cecil was unable to conceal his joy on thus having the gifted and popular Raleigh in his power, for from the earliest moment of his public life, he had betrayed the most intense jealousy of Sir Walter's abilities, and had used every art, and effectually, to prejudice James against him. Raleigh in the Tower stabbed himself under the right breast, but not mortally, declaring that he knew the inexorable malice of his enemies and the cruelty of the law in England, and therefore despaired of escaping with his life. Whilst he thus endeavoured to turn the odium on Cecil, Cecil and his emissaries out of doors actively disseminated the opinion that Raleigh had betrayed by this suicidal act a consciousness of guilt. It is remarkable that Cecil instructed Coke on the trial to avoid all mention of this attempt at suicide, probably to prevent Raleigh asserting in his defence that he was driven to the act by the conviction of the minister's intention to destroy him.

The coronation of the king, which took place on the 25th of July, being his saint's day, the festival of St. James, and