to give him) without name or date, and in a hand disguised; whereof I send you a copy, the rather to make you perceive to what a strait I was driven. As soon as he imparted the same unto me, how to govern myself, considering the contents and phrase of that letter I knew not; for when I observed the generality of the advertisment and the style, I could not well distinguish whether it were frenzy or sport; for from any serious ground I could hardly be induced to believe that that proceeded, for many Reasons; 1st., because no wise man could think my Lord [1] to be so weak as to take any alarm to absent himself from Parliament upon such a loose advertisement: secondly, I considered, that if any such thing were really intended, that it was very improbable that only one nobleman should be warned and no more. Nevertheless, being loath to trust my own judgment alone, and being always inclined to do too much in such a case as that is, I imparted the letter to the Earl of Suffolk, Lord Chamberlain, to the end I might receive his opinion;[2] whereupon perusing the words of the letter, and observing the writing (that the blow should come without knowledge who hurt them), we both conceived that it could not be more
- ↑ Lord Mounteagle.
- ↑ Cecil's story that the receipt of the letter took him entirely by surprise, and that its contents proved an enigma to him, is very cleverly told, but is a concoction not to be believed. He omits the fact that, although the letter was received late at night, he lost not a minute in placing it before his colleagues, who were all (suspiciously) close at hand when Mounteagle arrived post haste from Hoxton.
