To the dire disappointment of Catesby, Sir Everard Digby, and the rest, John Talbot, of Grafton, drove Thomas Winter and Stephen Littleton from his door when they sought his aid for the rebellion.[A]
[A] See Jardine’s “Narrative,” p. 112, to which I am indebted for this account; also Handy’s evidence, Jardine’s “Criminal Trials,” vol. ii., pp. 165, 166.
And Sir Everard was constrained to avow that of the wealthy Catholic gentry “not one man came to take our part though we had expected so many.”[B]
[B] Jardine’s “Narrative,” p. 112. Holbeach House is no longer standing.
CHAPTER LIV.
The High Sheriffs of Warwickshire and Worcestershire, with their posse comitatus, were in pursuit of the fugitives, who arrived at Holbeach House at ten of the clock on Thursday night.
At Holbeach they prepared to make their last stand. And alack! never more were the brothers John and Christopher Wright destined to behold Lapworth, Twigmore, Ripon, Skelton, Newby, Mulwith, York, or Plowland,[A] nor any of those scenes around which must have clung so many endearing associations and sacred memories.[156]
[A] For an account of recent visits to Mulwith and Plowland, see Supplementum IV. and Supplementum V.