George Brooke, Cobham's brother, was a light-hearted fellow, who was drawn into listening to the priest's conspiracy, because he had been disappointed of some small office upon which he had set his heart. To Bishop Bancroft was assigned the task of examining him. Large rewards were offered the Bishop if he were successful in finding out the details of the conspiracy. "The only way to procure favour is to open all that possibly you can" were the words with which the good Bishop began his inquiry. And gradually he played upon the fears and hopes of the prisoner to such an extent that the wretched man burst into a kind of rapture of confession, stating all he knew and all he imagined to be fact, about the treason against King James. Day after day the examination was continued relentlessly; statements made by other prisoners, or said to have been made, were told him; lists of written questions were given him. It would have taken a man of extraordinary strength and control to have kept his balance under such circumstances. George Brooke was a very ordinary man. On July 17 he said: "The conspirators among themselves thought Sir Walter Ralegh a fit man to be of the action." The good Bishop did not leave such an important statement undeveloped; under his careful management the statement by the end of August had grown; Brooke was ready to swear that Ralegh and Cobham had resolved to kill the King and his cubs. Cobham, too, was examined in the same relentless manner. He was a little stronger than his brother, George Brooke, but no match for the examiners. He began by steadfastly denying everything; his nerves, however, could not bear the terrible suspense. He had been suddenly removed to solitary confinement; the horror of a dreadful death loomed over him. He did not know who might be arrested, who might desire his death. At length some of the confessions of his brother were disclosed to him; but the examiners named Ralegh, not Brooke, as the authority; and Cobham, knowing that Ralegh must have invented or guessed at such things, broke into an outcry of disgust (who can blame him!), "Oh traitor, oh villain! I will now tell you all the truth." And he said that he had never entered into these courses but by Ralegh's instigation, and that Ralegh would never let him alone. It was very cleverly done by the examiner. Cobham was led into confessing, helped by questions from George Brooke's statements, that "he had conferred with Arenberg about procuring 500,000 or 600,000 crowns from the King of Spain; and that nothing should be done with the money until he had spoken with Sir Walter Ralegh, for distribution of the money to them which were discontented in England." Then part of a letter from Ralegh to Cecil--for Cecil knew much of the intercourse between Arenberg and England in his official capacity--was shown to Cobham, in which it was written, "If da Renzy were not secured, the matter would not be