For so to act is to weep with a Humanity that weeps. Then with that same Humanity to join in a triumphant pæan of victory that has for its universal and glorious theme this reality of realities which cannot be broken, namely, that Universe——whereof Man, though not the measure, constitutes so large a part——is primevally founded and everlastingly established in Goodness, Being, and Truth. Trusting that your Lordship will crown your gracious kindness by pardoning the great length of this Introductory Letter, I beg to remain, My dear Lord Halifax, Yours sincerely and gratefully, HENRY HAWKES SPINK, JUN. _Saturday, 26th October, 1901._ * * * * * Tragedy primarily implies imitation of Action by action, not by language, although of course language forms a constituent part. See the “_Poetics of Aristotle_,” chap. vi. “Although it is by no means proved to be impossible that this nobleman [Lord Mounteagle] was a guilty confederate in the Plot, the weight of evidence is at present in his favour. It is, however, a most curious State mystery: and I am persuaded that, if the truth is ever discovered, it will not be by State papers, or recorded confessions and examinations. When such expert artists as Bacon and Cecil framed and propagated a State fiction in order to cover a State intrigue, they took care to cut off or divert the channels of history so effectually as to make it hopeless, at the distance of three centuries to trace the truth by means of documents which have ever been in their control. If the mystery should hereafter be unravelled, it will be probably by the discovery of some letters or papers of a domestic nature, which either slumber in private repositories, or remain unnoticed in public collections.”——_Letter by David Jardine, Editor of_ “Criminal Trials,” _to Sir Henry Ellis, F.R.S._, “Archæologia,” _pp. 94-95. Dated 30th November, 1840._ PREFACE. The writer of the following work desires respectfully to put forward a modest contribution to the solution of one of the greatest problems known to History. The problem referred to arises out of that stupendous and far-reaching movement against the Government of King James I. known as the Gunpowder Treason Plot. This enterprise of cold-blooded, though grievously provoked, massacre was, of a truth, “barbarous and savage beyond the examples of all former ages.” But because the movement had a profoundly——in the Aristotelian sense——political _causa causans_, therefore it is of perennial interest to governors and governed.