[228] Ibid.
[229] The Politician's Catechism, 1658.
[230] Birch, Historical View, p. 234.
[231] "If the Priestes and Catholickes, so many thousands in England would have entertayned it, no man can be so malicious and simple to thinke but there would have been a greater assembly than fourscore [in the Midlands] to take such an action in hand, and the Council could not be so winking eyed, but they would have found forth some one or other culpable, which they could never do, though some of them, most powerable in it, tendered and racked forth their hatred against us to the uttermost limites they could extend." English Protestants' plea, p. 60.
[232] Discourse of the manner of the discovery of the Gunpowder Plot. Printed in the Collected Works of King James, by Bishop Mountague, by Bishop Barlow, in Gunpowder Treason, and in Cobbett's State Trials, as an appendix to that of the conspirators.
[233] I.e., Cornwallis, Edmondes, and Chichester. The despatch to Cornwallis is printed in Winwood's Memorials, ii. 170.
[234] Sir Thoms Parry, P.R.O. France, bundle 132.
[235] Mr. Hepworth Dixon observes (Her Majesty's Tower, i. 352, seventh edition) that a man must have been in no common measure ignorant of Cecil and Northampton who could dream that such a design could escape the greatest masters of intrigue alive, and that abundant evidence makes it clear that the Council were informed of the Plot in almost every stage, and that their agents dogged the footsteps of those whom they suspected, taking note of all their proceedings. "It was no part of Cecil's policy," adds Mr. Dixon, "to step in before the dramatic time."
[236] Often called Phelipps, or Philipps.
[237] History of Scotland, iii. 376, note (ed. Eadie). It was on one of these letters which had been in the hands of Phelippes that Mary was convicted.