It is possible that the handwriting of the mysterious letter may never be identified, but there need be no doubt that it was drawn up under the personal supervision of Lord Mounteagle or Tresham. As I have hinted above, a third party, probably a priest, may have assisted in its concoction. Who this priest was it is a little hard to establish. That Tresham may have mentioned intentions to Garnet in confession is very possible, and the Jesuit Superior may have thought the plan proposed a good way out of the terribly difficult situation wherein he was placed. It certainly would never have occurred to any priest (as it never occurred to Tresham himself) that the plotters would be such fools as to stay on in London after the delivery of the letter to the King. Their crass folly in refusing to leave London till all was lost was an act of incomparable madness which was never contemplated by Warde, [1] Tresham, and Mounteagle. 'Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first turn mad! 'is a proverb certainly applicable to those of the gunpowder conspirators who refused to listen to the urgent warnings given to them by Thomas Warde.
Lord Mounteagle must, in any event, be deemed a very fortunate person to have been treated with such marked favour and liberality by
- ↑ 'One Thomas Warde, a principal man about him (Mounteagle), is suspected to be accessory of the treason ' (Letter from Sir E. Hobart to Sir T. Edmonds, November 19, 1605).
