"Catesby's man (_George Bartlet_),[329] on his death-bed, confessed his master went to Salisbury House several nights before the discovery, and was always brought privately in at a back door."
Then, in answer to an objection of Fulman's, is added: "Catesby, 'tis like, did not mean to betray his friends or his own life--he was drawn in and made believe strange things. All good men condemn him and the rest as most desperate wretches; yet most believed the original contrivance of the Plot was not theirs."
Whatever else may be thought of the above statements, they at least serve to contradict Mr. Jardine's assertion,[330] that the notion of Cecil's complicity,--which he terms a strange suggestion, scarce worthy of notice,--was first heard of long after the transaction, and was adopted exclusively by Catholics. Clearly it was not unknown to Protestants who were contemporaries, or personally acquainted with contemporaries, of the event. Yet the document here cited was known to Mr. Jardine, who mentions one of its statements, that relating to Lord Monteagle, but says nothing of its more serious allegations.
It must also be remarked that we find some traces in the evidence which remains of certain mysterious conspirators of great importance, concerning whom no investigation whatever appears to have been made, they being at once permitted to drop into the profoundest obscurity, in a manner quite contrary to the habitual practice of the authorities.
One such instance is afforded by the testimony of a mariner, Henry Paris, of Barking,[331] that Guy Faukes, _alias_ Johnson, hired a boat of him, "wherein was carried over to Gravelines a man supposed of great import: he went disguised, and would not suffer any one man to go with him but this Vaux, nor to return with him. This Paris did attend for him back at Gravelines six weeks. If cause require there are several proofs of this matter." None of these, however, seem to have been sought.
[293] Jardine, _Criminal Trials_, ii. 38, n.
[294] _E.g._, the author of the _Politician's Catechism_.
[295] "About the time of my Lord Essex his enterprise he became Catholic" (_i.e._ 1601). Father Gerard, _Narrative_, p. 58.
[296] P.R.O. _Gunpowder Plot Book_, n. 4.