[Footnote 28:——See the admirably written life of Sir Everard Digby, under the title “_The Life of a Conspirator_,” by “One of his descendants” (Kegan Paul & Co., 1895). The learned descendant of Sir Everard Digby, however, evidently knows very much more concerning his gallant ancestor than he knows about Guy Fawkes, who (excepting that “accident of an accident”——fortune) was as honourable a character as the high-minded spouse of Mary Mulsho himself——_honourable, of course, I mean after their kind_.——Jardine’s “_Narrative of Gunpowder Plot_,” p. 67.] [Footnote 29:——Sir William Catesby and Sir Thomas Tresham were excellent types of the English gentry of their day. Each was “a fine old English gentleman, one of the olden time.” They had both become “reconciled” Roman Catholics——along with so many of the nobility, gentry, and yeomanry in the Midlands——in 1580-81, through the famous missionary journey of the Jesuit, Robert Parsons, probably forming with Edmund Campion two of the most powerful extempore preachers that ever gave utterance to the English tongue. We may readily picture to ourselves “the coming of age” of the son and heir of each of these gallant knights and stately dames. And we may easily conceive of the bright hopes that either of the gentlewomen (especially the two sisters), in their close-fitting caps, laced ruffs, and gowns falling in pleated folds, must have cherished in their maternal hearts for an honourable career for the child——the treasured child——of their bosom. Alas! through the evil will of man, for the pathetic vanity of human wishes.] [Footnote 30:——Jardine, in his “_Narrative_,” p. 51, says that John Grant’s ancestors are described in several pedigrees as of Saltmarsh, in Worcestershire, and of Snitterfield, in Warwickshire; that Norbrook adjoined Snitterfield, though it is not now considered locally situate therein. Students of Shakespeare will be interested to learn that in the Parish of Snitterfield, near Grant’s ancestral home, the poet’s mother, Mary Arden——herself connected with the Throckmorton family——owned property. Moreover, through his mother, Shakespeare was distantly connected with several of the plotters. For Catesby and Tresham, as well as Lady Wigmore, of Lucton, Herefordshire, were all first cousins to Lady Mounteagle, who was a daughter of Sir Thomas Tresham. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton (the father of Francis Throckmorton, who was executed in the reign of Elizabeth) having three daughters whom he married to Sir William Catesby, Sir Thomas Tresham, and Sir William Wigmore.——See Jardine’s “_Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot_,” p. 11; also Foley’s “_Records of the Jesuits in England_” (Burns & Oates), vol. iv., p. 290.