[357] “Mary Digby to Lord Salisbury.
Right Honourable Lord.—My poor and perplexed estate enforceth me to be an humble petitioner to your good Lordship. I was most fearful and loth to trouble your honour so long as I had any hopes of redress without it; but finding none elsewhere, makes me presume to present these unto your honour. I confidently believe your lordship doth think that, upon yours with others of the Lords of his majesty —— council, your letters to the Sheriff of Buckinghamshire in my behalf (for which I humbly give thanks), hath given ease and relief unto my present wants; but truly my lord it is nothing so, for all which he hath done, since he received that letter, is but that he hath returned, near from whence he had taken, part of the household stuff which he had carried away and there keepeth it; but will not let anything be delivered to my use; notwithstanding I procured the Lord Treasurer’s warrant to him, for the delivery of divers things most needful for my present use; for which I was to put in sureties for their return, when they should be justly demanded, which was by bond and drawn according to the Lord Treasurer his own direction, which was, as the sheriff said, too favourable for me, and therefore did refuse it; such strange and hard proceedings doth he still continue against me (the particulars thereof were too tedious to relate unto your lordship) that, without your honour’s good assistance, I shall receive no part of such good favours as your lordship meant unto me. Never, since my grievous calamities, I have received no one penny, but am forced to borrow, both for my own present spending, and to furnish Mr Digby with those things he wants, and as hath been called to me for by the lieutenant of the Tower, which borrowed money I must forthwith repay; and the cause why I can receive none, according to the allowance which was granted for me, is because this sheriff will not pay the money into the exchequer which he hath received for such goods which he sold of Mr Digby’s, which is between 200 and 300 pounds, and hath said he would keep it in his hands till he were allowed for the charge he was at, for the carrying the goods”[some words here are mutilated] “and bringing of them back again. My hope in your Lordship’s pity to my distress promiseth me to find relief for these my complaints, for which I will ever remain your honour’s most thankful—
“Mary Digby.
“Postscript.—Right honourable,—Though it be no part of my letter, yet is it a very far greater part of my humble desire to your Lordship whereby, I cannot but beg your pitiful commiseration to incline and further his majesty’s mercy for my woeful husband, which if your Lordship extend such a charitable act, we and all what is ours will ever be your honour’s.”
The “goods which he sold of Mr Digby’s,”mentioned in the letter may be assumed to have been the contents of the trunk, carried by his “trunk-horse,” and inventoried in a letter[358] written from the Tower.
It is probable that Lady Digby wrote to her husband, expressing herself powerless to “conceive his nature to give consent for such an act”as the Gunpowder Plot; for he wrote to her from the Tower excusing himself.[359]
“Let me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the least sin in the Plot, I would not have been of it for all the world: and no other cause drew me to hazard my Fortune and Life, but zeal to God’s Religion. For my keeping it secret, it was caused by certain belief, that those which were best able to judge of the lawfulness of it,”—by these he evidently means the Jesuit Fathers—“had been acquainted with it, and given way to it. More reasons I had to persuade me to this belief than I dare utter, which I will never, to the suspicion of any, though I should go to the Rack for it, and as I did not know it directly that it was approved by such so did I hold it in my Conscience the best not to know any more if I might.”He seems to have intended to convey that he had been practically certain that the Jesuit Fathers had given their approval but was anxious to be able to say that he did not actually know this.
In another letter,[360] he says “My dearest, the —— I take at the uncharitable taking of these matters, will make me say more than I ever thought to have done. For if this design had taken place, there could have been no doubt of other Success: for that night, before any other could have brought the news, we should have known it by Mr Catesby, who should have proclaimed the Heir-Apparent at Charing-Cross, as he came out of Town; to which purpose there was a Proclamation Drawn,”etc. The absurdity of attaching any value to a proclamation by such a comparatively insignificant individual as Catesby does not appear to have occurred to him!
After describing the plans laid for securing the young Duke and the Princess Elizabeth, he goes on to say “there were also courses taken for the satisfying of the people if the first had taken effect, as the speedy notice of Liberty and Freedom from all manner of Slavery, as the ceasing of Wardships and all Monopolies, which with change would have been more plausible to the people, if the first had been, than is now. There was also a course taken to have given present notice to all Princes, and to Associate them with an Oath answerable to the League in France.”Whether “all Princes”would have felt inclined “to associate” themselves “with an Oath”at the request of a band of assassins may be questioned.
Sir Everard, as well as Lady Digby, wrote to Salisbury; but his letters asked for fewer favours.
“If your Lordship,”he wrote,[361] “and the State think it fit to deal severely with the Catholics, within brief there will be massacres, rebellions, and desperate attempts against the King and State. For it is a general received reason among Catholics, that there is not that expecting and suffering course now to be run that was in the Queen’s time, who was the last of her line, and last in expectance to run violent courses against Catholics; for then it was hoped that the King that now is, would have been at least free from persecuting, as his promise was before coming into this realm, and as divers his promises have been since his coming. All these promises every man sees broken.”At the same time, he said that he[362] “will undertake to secure the Pope’s promise not to excommunicate the King, if he will deal mildly with Catholics.”As to plots against the king and the government, something of the kind, he declares, would have been contrived sooner, if the priests had not hindered it.
An earlier letter written by him from the Tower,[363] is thus summarized:—“Sir Everard Digby to Salisbury. Is willing to tell all he knows, but can remember nothing more than he has already confessed, except that Catesby intended to send the Earls of Westmoreland and Derby to raise forces in the North, and would send information to France, Spain, Italy, etc., of their success. Begs that the King will have compassion on his family.”
Meanwhile examinations were constantly going on, not only of the prisoners in the Tower, but also of other persons, with regard to the Gunpowder Plot, and the correspondence on the subject was very large. Lord Salisbury wrote to the Lord Chancellor of Scotland,[364] assuring him that he “would rather die than be slack in searching the dregs of”the plot “to the bottom.” Lady Markham wrote to Salisbury, that[365] the “Plot hath taken deep and dangerous root”; that many will not believe “that holy and good man,”Father Gerard, had anything to do with it; and that Sir Everard Digby is the man from whom he must endeavour to obtain particulars about Walley—i.e., Father Garnet. Mrs Vaux was examined on the eighteenth of November, and she made no secret of Sir Everard having been a visitor at her house. Lady Lovel admitted knowing both Sir Everard and Catesby, though slightly. To have been a friend of Digby’s was now very dangerous. Servants and retainers of the conspirators were arrested in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and there examined.