On Thursday, October 31st, the king returned from Royston; and the next day Cecil submitted the letter to his inspection. It appears that Cecil offered no opinion concerning the letter; he merely placed it in his majesty’s hands. After a little pause, the king expressed an opinion that it ought not to be despised. Cecil, perceiving that the king viewed the matter more seriously than he had anticipated, referred him to one sentence, _“for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the letter,”_ which he conceived must have been written by a fool or a madman, since if the danger was past as soon as the letter was destroyed, as if burning the letter could ward off the danger, the warning was of small consequence. The king connected the expression with the former sentence, _“That they should receive a terrible blow at this parliament, and yet should not see who hurt them.”_ Taking the two sentences together, the king immediately fancied that there was an allusion to some attempt by gunpowder. An insurrection, or any other attempt, during the sitting of parliament, could not be unseen; could not be momentarily executed. The king interpreted the clause thus, that the danger would be sudden and as quickly over as the burning of the paper in the fire, taking the words _as soon_ in the sense of _as quickly_. He suggested, therefore, that the letter must refer to an explosion of gunpowder, and that the spot chosen for it must be under or near the House of Lords. It is remarkable that Cecil himself had intimated to some of his colleagues, before the king’s return from Royston, that the letter must refer to an explosion of gunpowder: the very same suspicion also crossed the mind of the earl of Suffolk, the lord chamberlain. This suspicion, however, was concealed from the king by the two statesmen. His majesty instantly took the same view of the letter, though he was totally unacquainted with the opinions of his two councillors. Popish authors have laboured to prove, that the treason was either planned by, or at least known to, the court, because the king so readily referred the letter to an explosion by gunpowder. Cecil and Suffolk had conceived the same opinion, though it does not appear that they thought of gunpowder secreted under the House of Lords. But what proof does this circumstance furnish of any previous knowledge even, on the part of the court, much less of contrivance? Was it strange that they should thus interpret such a mysterious letter? Cecil and Suffolk were fully aware of the plots which had been devised against Elizabeth; they knew that on more than one occasion, the traitors had contemplated the death of the queen by means of gunpowder. With these facts fresh in their recollection, it was perfectly natural to interpret the letter to signify some attempt of the same kind. In short, no other interpretation could have reasonably been put upon it. That the king himself should have suspected some attempt by