THE ASSOCIATES.
So great were the talents possessed by Grasp for smelling out a plot, whether it existed or not, that he seemed peculiarly fitted for the period in which he lived, and in which conspiracies, either real or pretended, were so frequently agitating the kingdom.
Plot and pestilence, indeed, during Elizabeth's reign seemed the bug-bears of the time. At one moment the Court was driven from its locality, by some of the attendants being seized at the very palace gates with some infectious disorder, and the next, some dark, evil-minded fanatic was apprehended, dagger in hand, almost in the very presence-chamber.
Since the execution of the Queen of Scots those conspirators had been more hopeless of success; yet still, ever and anon, a new and dangerous attempt against the life of the Queen was brought to light.
Just at the present period of our story, such a design was pounced on by Grasp; but, like all over-zealous persons, he was liable, in his eagerness, to run upon a wrong scent, and lose sight of the game he had started.
It happened, during his visit to London at this time, and in an interval spared from his numerous avocations, (for Grasp was now a man in full business), that he, one night, amused himself by witnessing an execution in company with his friend Doubletongue.
This execution was one possessing considerable interest, inasmuch as several criminals were to suffer for conscience-sake, and that was always a popular exhibition during Elizabeth's reign. Six were Catholic priests, who were hung, drawn, and quartered, for conspiring against the Queen's life. Two more were laymen, who, having embraced protestantism and returned to the old belief, were to be burned alive in company with a wretched atheist named Francis Wright, alias Kit Wyndham. Besides these there was one other named Word, who was to be executed for concealment of Catholics under suspicion of treason.
The execution took place in Smithfield, and, like those of more modern times, when the cut-purse is seen to exercise his vocation beneath the gallows on which a fellow thief was struggling, so was treason watching within the scorching influence of the fire which burned these traitors.
One Reginald Deville, an usurer and an informer, who also bore the appropriate cognomen of Reynard Devil, had tracked a suspicious character into Smithfield on this very night; a fanatic being, whose husband had been in the service of the Queen of Scots, and who, in the disguise of a man, was known to be in concealment in London for the purpose of assassinating Elizabeth.
In the crowd, and during the excitement of the execution, Deville had lost sight of this person, almost at the moment he was about to gain assistance and pounce upon her; and, as he was prying about, he stumbled upon Grasp, whom he had formerly known.