[381]“I have seen some of the chief”[conspirators], he says, “and think they bear an evil mark in their foreheads, for more terrible countenances never were looked upon.”
Another writer takes a different view, at any rate in the case of Sir Everard Digby. As that prisoner was being brought up for trial, says Father Gerard,[382] “(not in the best case to make show of himself as you may imagine), yet some of the chiefest in the Court seeing him out of a window brought in that manner, lamented him much, and said he was the goodliest man in the whole Court.”
On entering Westminster Hall, the prisoners were made to ascend a scaffold placed in front of the judges. The Queen and the Prince were seated in a concealed chamber from which they could see, but could not be seen; and it was reported that the King also was somewhere present.[383] The crowd was enormous. Although a special part of the hall had been assigned to members of parliament who might wish to attend the trial, they were so[384] “pestered with others not of the House,”that one member complained, and a committee was afterwards appointed to enquire into the matter.
Sir Everard Digby was arraigned under a separate indictment from that of the other prisoners, and he was tried by himself after them; but he stood by them throughout the trial. The first indictment was very long. After a much spun-out preamble, it stated that the prisoners “traiterously[385] among themselves did conclude and agree, with Gunpowder, as it were with one blast, suddenly, traiterously, and barbarously to blow up and tear in pieces our said Sovereign Lord the King, the Excellent, Virtuous, and gracious Queen Anne his dearest Wife, the most Noble Prince Henry their Eldest Son, the future Hope and Joy of England, and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal; the Reverend Judges of the Realm, the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses of Parliament, and divers other faithful Subjects and Servants of the King in the said Parliament,”&c., “and all of them, without any respect of Majesty, Dignity, Degree, Sex, Age, or Place, most barbarously, and more than beastly, traiterously and suddenly, to destroy and swallow up.”
The prisoners under this indictment pleaded “Not Guilty; and put themselves upon God and the Country.”
Sir Edward Philips, Sergeant at Law, then got upon his legs. The matter before the Court, he said, was one of Treason;[386] “but of such horrour, and monstrous nature, that before now,
The Tongue of Man never delivered, The Ear of Man never heard, The Heart of Man never conceited, Nor the Malice of Hellish or Earthly Devil never practised.”
And, if it were “abominable to murder the least,” and if “to touch God’s annointed,” were to oppose God himself, “Then how much more than too monstrous” was it “to murder and subvert
Such a King, Such a Queen, Such a Prince, Such a Progeny, Such a State, Such a Government, So compleat and absolute; That God approves: The World admires: All true English Hearts honour and reverence: The Pope and his Disciples onely envies and maligns.”
The Sergeant, after dwelling briefly on the chief points of the indictment, and describing the objects of the conspiracy and the plan of the conspirators, sat down to make way for the principal counsel for the prosecution, His Majesty’s Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke.