Tresham's statement being misunderstood to mean that he had not seen Garnet for sixteen years,[22] while the Government knew from Tresham himself[23] that he had recently been in Garnet's company, was considered such awful perjury to commit when dying as to be incredible. Coke wrote to Salisbury: "It is true that no man may judge in this case, for inter pontem et fontem he might find grace; but it is the most fearful example that I ever knew of to be made so evident as now this is." Salisbury at the trial said: "Mr. Tresham in his lifetime accused you, Garnet, before the lords, yet now upon his salvation, he under his hand did excuse you, being at the very point of death, saying he had not seen you in sixteen years, which matter, I assure you, before you were taken shook me very much. But, thanks be to God, since the coming of the King, I have known so much of your doctrine and practices, that hereafter they shall not much trouble me." The writing of Tresham's dying statement was, therefore, particularly, inquired into, and Vavasour had to make a written statement respecting his knowledge of it; evidently for comparison of the handwriting. This appears to have so alarmed him that in his statement (Fascimile No. 4), written in the presence of Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, he asserted that the dying statement was written by Mrs. Tresham, at her husband's dictation:
"I do rememb' yt my mr did cause my mres to write a note wherto he did did (sic) bid the mayd and me beare witnes yt he did set his hand unto it, but it was not reade at yt time but since mres Tressa' did reede it to me and sayd it was yt noate yt my mr did bid us beare witnesse and she comaunded me to carye a letter to Sr Waulter Cope and to desire him to deliver the noate inclosed to my Lorde of Salsburye and further my mr did say yt he cold not write him selfe bycause he was not able but he did sett his hande unto it as before I have sayd and this was done some day before his death.
"(Signed) By me William Vavasor.
"23. March 1605 [-6].
Taken before us:
(Signed) W. Waad.
Willus Lane."
If for any reason Vavasour did not desire his writing to be brought into question, there could be no harm, beyond his falsehood, in naming Mrs. Tresham as the writer of that letter, as neither could possibly be blamed for writing such a statement for his master. The question arises, whether Vavasour would have ventured upon an untrue statement, except through panic, unless feeling sure of Mrs. Tresham's support? As Mrs. Tresham throughout made no attempt to conceal the truth for Vavasour, she may have been unaware of any reason for diverting inquiry from himself respecting letters written for his master. Even if Mrs. Tresham had been willing to connive at his falsehood, she could not have done so; as Salisbury, being convinced that she not only wrote but composed her husband's dying statement and induced him to sign to shield Father Garnet, was so incensed against her that he declined to see her,[24] or even to receive her husband's statement, when she tried to deliver it. She was therefore obliged, in view of possible consequences to herself, to own[25] that Vavasour wrote the statement at her husband's dictation. Vavasour was then examined in the Tower by Chief Justice Popham and by Coke, when he confessed[26] that he wrote the dying statement at his master's dictation, and had denied it through fear, which could only arise from having written some other and less innocent letter for him.
Vavasour, when writing his untrue statement, would avoid using his ordinary handwriting, as already appearing in the letter in question (No. 3), which he had ascribed to Mrs. Tresham. He, therefore, disguises his writing, so far as having to write off-hand and under the observation of the Lieutenant of the Tower and an attendant Justice, with the consciousness that he is writing what is false, and while having to be careful not to reproduce his former disguised hand, as seen in the anonymous letter, permits him; and the hand thus produced betrays him as the writer of that letter, with which the writing is, in itself, identical. The long "s" is invariably used for a word commencing with that letter, even when not a capital; there are the same peculiar "t's," though in a less disguised or elaborated form than those of the anonymous letter, but there they clearly are; the "w's" have no side loops, but in Vavasour's note at foot of No. 3 a conspicuous example is seen; there are no "g's";[27] the "y's" are particularly noticeable, being in two varieties: Vavasour's ordinary "y," of which the tail is tucked back; in the other, the tail is brought forward; and no one can fail to see that the latter are by the same hand as those in the letter; the "hangers" of the "h's" invariably drag below the line; and generally, the writing may throughout be detected as by the same hand that wrote the anonymous letter.
The best specimen of Vavasour's handwriting, although not so useful as No. 4 for identification purposes, is in the MS. entitled "A Treatise against Lying," etc., identified by William Tresham as having been transcribed by Vavasour for Francis Tresham, which is now in the Bodleian Library (Facsimile No. 2). To anyone familiar with the handwriting of the period, Vavasour's writing is the usual law-writer's or copyist's hand, such as appears in conveyances and deeds of the time,[28] and is not the style of hand that an educated person would then write. Each initial "s" is of the long form; each "w" has a side loop; the "g's" are flat-topped; and the "h's" come below the line, etc. Tresham's dying statement (No. 3) appears to be in a similar but smaller[29] and less carefully written hand. Vavasour wrote a neat, small hand, which, when disguising, the probability is that he would attempt an opposite style. If it were not for the testimony of the Lieutenant of the Tower, that the untrue statement (No. 4) was actually written in his presence by Vavasour, the writing would not, from the general appearance, readily be recognized as by the same hand that wrote Tresham's dying statement (No. 3), and so acknowledged by Vavasour. This shows that he was naturally clever in disguising his hand, hence his employment by Tresham in writing the anonymous letter to Lord Monteagle.
Upon the evidence of the handwriting alone, William Vavasour was the writer of that letter.[30]