insist upon that place. Since I came out of Essex, I was there two times; and so I may say I was there. . . .'
The above conversation is reported to have been overheard on February 23, 1606; the following, on February 25.
Garnet. 'They pressed me with a question, what Noblemen I knew that have written any letters to Rome, 'and by whom? Well, I see they will justify my Lord Mounteagle of all this matter.[1] I said nothing of him, neither will I ever confess him. . . .
'There is one special thing of which I doubted they would have taken an exact account of me; to wit, of the causes of my coming to Coughton, which indeed would have bred a great suspicion of the matter. . . .
'They mentioned the letters sent into Spain; but I answered that those letters were of no other matter but to have pensions.'
On February 27, the priests were again overheard talking.
'It seemed to us,' wrote the agents, 'that Hall told Garnet how he answered the matters of White Webbs, which Garnet said it was well; but, said he, of the other matter, of our meeting on the way, it were better to leave it in a contradiction, as it was, lest perhaps the poor fellow shall be tortured for the clearing of that point. . . .
- ↑ This tends to confirm my opinion, stated above, of Mounteagle's treachery. Garnet, throughout, seems to have thought it hopeless to get Cecil to let the truth be known about Mounteagle.
