already and shall not be able to ride after to London." "Well," said he, "I will think of it," and set me to rest in a private chamber, with one to look to me, because he would avoid the people's gazing. When he had despatched his business, he sent for me, and told me we should go with him to his house. So we did in the coach, and were exceedingly well used, and dined and supped with him and his every day. 'On Candlemas day, he made a great dinner to end Christmas; and in the midst of dinner he sent for wine to drink health to the King, and we were all bare. . . . All the way to London, I was passing well used at the King's charge, and that by express orders from Lord Salisbury.' I had always the best horse in the company. I had some bickering with Ministers by the way. Two very good scholars and courteous, Mr. Abbott and Mr. Barlow, met us at an inn; but two other rude fellows met us on the way, whose discourtesy I rewarded with plain words, and so adieu! They were discharged by authority.' Garnet's arrival in London created a great sensation, for a Jesuit Superior was a captive out of the ordinary, and the common herd flocked to see him as if expecting to find some new species of wild beast. After examination at Whitehall, Garnet was sent to the Tower. He says in his own words 1 This attestation of Garnet, concerning the kind treatment he received by direction of the Government is, of course, never admitted by Jesuit writers. In a letter to Salisbury, dated February 5, Bromley mentions that ' Mr. Garnet is but a weak and wearisome traveller.' 'On St. Valentine's day I came to the Tower, where I have a very fine chamber; but was very sick the two first nights with ill lodging. I am allowed every meal a good draught of excellent claret wine, and I am liberal with myself and neighbours for good respects, to allow also of my own purse some sack.'1 Finally, before closing this account of Garnet's capture and progress to London, it is worth quoting the following interesting, but not quite correct, reference to his capture made by the Venetian Ambassador in a letter, dated February 24, to the Doge of Venice 'They have, at last, captured the two Jesuits, who had already been proclaimed as guilty of conspiracy; they had taken shelter in a cave in the country, and were besieged there, and finally driven out by the hunger and suffering which they had endured. One of them is the Provincial of the Jesuits in England, and it is thought that in putting him to death with cruel torments they will wreak all their hatred of his religion and of himself. But he will not be executed in public, for he is a man of moving eloquence and vast learning, and they are afraid that his constancy, and the power of his speech, may produce just the reverse of what they desire.' 1 During the whole time he was in the Tower, Garnet indulged freely in wine, and is reported to have been overcome by the effects of his potations on more than one occasion. The Jesuit story that this is mere Protestant calumny is controverted by the fact that an agent was sent from Rome to England by Father Parsons to inquire into Garnet's conduct, owing to the reports which had reached head-quarters of his drunkenness and immorality. A CHAPTER XV THE FATE OF FATHER GARNET I LTHOUGH Father Garnet reached the metro polis early in February (on, apparently, the 8th, or even the 7th of that month), he was not brought to trial until March 28. During this interval, he was frequently examined before the Privy Council, the results of which examinations, or rather the most important of them, may be set down briefly as below. On February 13, he admitted that he had for a period of nearly twenty years been the Superior of the Jesuits in England. He denied, however, all knowledge of the Powder Plot, and that he had tried to help the conspirators when they were marching to Holbeach. He confessed that he had corrected the book on equivocation, found in Tresham's desk, but had refused to have it printed. As to its doctrines, he could see no harm in them, although they had never been formally approved by the Holy See, in spite of their having been countenanced by certain divines. |