Father Gerard was not to be put off in this manner, and he asked once more, “whether there were anything to be done,”and, if so, whether help was expected from any foreign power.
Sir Everard was becoming hard pressed, and raising one finger, he replied, “I will not adventure so much in hope thereof.”
Distressed and anxious, Father Gerard then said—“I pray God you follow counsel in your doings. If there be any matter in hand, doth Mr Walley know of it?”Walley was the name by which Father Garnet, the Provincial of the Jesuits, was spoken of at that time.
Digby’s answer was a curious one, unless Catesby had not told him the name of the particular Jesuit whose approval he pretended to have obtained. “In truth, I think he doth not.”
Then, said Father Gerard, “In truth, Sir Everard Digby, if there should be anything in hand, and that you retire yourself and company into Warwickshire, as into a place of most safety, I should think you did not perform the part of a friend to some of your neighbours not far off, and persons that, as you know, deserve every respect, and to whom you have professed much friendship, that they are left behind, and have not any warning to make so much provision for their own safety as were needful in such a time, but to defend themselves from rogues.”
Sir Everard, who must have sincerely wished that his friend had stayed away, replied—“I warrant you it shall not need.”
At this assurance Father Gerard felt rather more satisfied, and shortly afterwards he rode away, much to the relief of his host, who at any other time would have pressed him to remain as his guest.
Sir Everard stayed at home over the Sunday—whether he rode to some other Catholic’s house to hear Mass on that day does not appear—and on the Monday[248] he started for Dunchurch, accompanied by his page, William Ellis, Richard Day, “his receaver,” and five servants.
He can scarcely have left Gothurst in the best of spirits, as he must have reflected that, for the first time, he had prevaricated and dissembled, if not actually lied, to the man he considered his best friend, the very priest who had received him into the Church; that he had parted with him on a far from satisfactory footing, and that he had been obliged to send him away from his house without saying Mass on a day of such importance to all good Catholics as that devoted to the memory of and intercession for the dead.
Besides these, he had other good reasons for depression as he rode away from his beautiful home; he must have known that, at best, he was starting upon a very perilous enterprise; whether it succeeded or failed, many of his party might fall on the field in prosecuting it, if nothing worse happened to them; and it may be that, as he caught a last glimpse of Gothurst in the distance, the thought occurred to his mind that he would never see it again.