sister he afterwards married) that if they heard of any man in the country to be esteemed more valiant and resolute than others, one or the other of them would surely have picked a quarrel against him and fought with him. . . . He had a great wit and a very good delivery of his mind, and so was able to speak as well as most in the things wherein he had experience. He was tall, and of a very comely face and fashion; of age near fifty, as I take it, for his head and beard was much changed white.' Brought up a Protestant, it is difficult to ascertain when he became a Catholic, according, vaguely, to Gerard about the time of Essex his enterprise.' Of Lord Essex he was a warm admirer and devoted adherent. On the accession of James I., whom he had visited (shortly before Elizabeth's death) with a view to getting from him a promise to help the English Catholics-a promise which that monarch deliberately broke-Percy became quite a turbulent recusant, in spite of his position in his patron's household. By Lord Northumberland he was enrolled one of the royal gentlemen pensioners, but without swearing the usual oath. On the discovery of the plot, the crafty and unscrupulous Cecil seized upon this trivial circumstance as an excuse to imprison the innocent

1 He could not have been so old as this at the date of his death, for he was born at Beverley in 1559.

2 I should, however, be inclined to assign an earlier date than that, by some five years or so.

› Northumberland in the Tower, and to impose upon him a colossal fine.

In private life, Thomas Percy was a very different person from the bigoted Guy Faukes. Percy was not even commonly honest in money matters, for he had robbed his patron over the collection of the Alnwick rents, and projected doing so again on a larger scale as a means of raising money for the plot. He was a restless, aggressive, inquisitive man, and led such a prominent public life that he was ill-fitted to play the part of a conspirator. To have refrained from receiving him as a member of the gang would, however, have been almost as dangerous as to admit him; for he would have racked his brains to find out what was going on, and his jealousy might have procured Catesby's arrest. Boisterous,1 arrogant, and domineering, his movements were of the most rapid and untiring description; nothing stood in his way when he wanted anything done, or when he wanted to take a journey; one day he was in London dining with his patron, another he was en route, post haste, for Alnwick. That he stood high in his patron's favour is evident, otherwise his unpopularity, and indifferent character would have prevented him retaining his appointments under the northern Earl, whose retainers complained of Percy's harsh treatment of them; whilst on the eve of the Gunpowder

1 Father Greenway, however, asserts that 'notwithstanding the boldness of his character, his manners were gentle and quiet.'

!

Hæc eft vera & prima origmalis editioThose Perci

Os vultumg vides Thomae agnomine Percy

Inter Britannos nobiles noui//im
Queis rebusca at ambitione fuperftitiofo
Animo nefandam machinatur dum necem
Regi Resina Ordinibus diprenditur, ipfum
Deo volente Jeclus in auctorem vuito

A Thomas tching Captiverunt
B The Ichryfo Regi adduxe.
C The Perf in Arce fugit
Thomas Perfs fagittotus

mortuus

Plot, he confessed that it was unsafe for him to visit Yorkshire, in which county he was accused of being 'the chief pillar of papistry.' By many of his co-religionists, too, he was distrusted, for they accused him of having deceived them in regard to his secret mission to the Scottish Court. But, to give Percy his due, it is certain that he was himself grossly deceived by James, who was, at that period, ready to promise anything to anybody, if by so doing he could strengthen his prospects of succession to the coveted throne of England.'

Such a man as Percy, therefore, it is not difficult to comprehend, was a fertile source of danger to his confederates. He was too busy and officious a person to play a part requiring the most consummate care and skill. He was, nevertheless, of great use to Catesby for three important reasons, namely, that by his position under Lord Northumberland he was enabled to hear what was doing at Court; by his ingenuity, possession of the vault was obtained underneath the Parliament House; and, by his position as Northumberland's agent, he was enabled to purloin large sums of money for feeding the conspiracy.

In the proclamation for his arrest,

1 The conduct of James in this matter is one of the most scandalous incidents in his scandalous life. His denial that he ever promised to help the Catholics was deliberate perjury. This treachery of James seems to have driven Percy to desperation, and to have strengthened his alliance with the Jesuit faction in consequence.