It is highly improbable that Catesby and the other conspirators at White Webbs kept up communications with their friend and ally at Gothurst; so most likely he was spared the anxiety of the news that on Saturday, the 26th, Lord Mounteagle had received, when at supper, an anonymous letter, warning him to "devyse some exscuse" for absenting himself from the "parleament," and to "retyere" himself into the "contri" where he might "expect the event in safti for thoghe theare be no apparance of anni stir yet i saye they shall receyve a terribel blowe this parleament and yet they shall not seie who hurts them &c.";[240] and that Lord Mounteagle[241] ordered a man in his service to read this letter then and there before the party assembled. Most likely, too, Sir Everard did not learn till much later that when, early in the following week, Catesby and Winter heard of the delivery of this letter of warning, they suspected Tresham of being its author; that, on Wednesday, the 30th, they summoned him, after he had been down in Northamptonshire for about a week, to come at once to White Webbs, with the full intention of poignarding him on the spot, if they could convince themselves that he had been guilty of writing and sending the warning, and that he denied it, with such firmness and so many oaths, that they hesitated to assassinate him, while still doubting his sincerity. [240] Lingard, Vol. vii. chap. i. [241] It would be beyond my sphere, nor have I the space, to go into the vexed question of the authorship of this letter. Nor can I here inquire whether Mounteagle was privy to the plot. A very affectionate letter from Mounteagle to Catesby is given in _Archaeologia_, Vol. xxviii. pp. 423-4, and with it are some interesting remarks by Mr Bruce upon this subject. He infers from some, at first sight, playful words about "the ellimentes of Aier and fyre," and "the fyre of your spirite," that Mounteagle referred to the Gunpowder Plot; and he suspects that in telling Catesby that he "accumptes thy person the only sone that must Ripene our harvest," Mounteagle implies that Catesby is the chief instigator of the great blow that is to deliver the Catholics from persecution. The letter invites Catesby to meet him at Bath, and Mr Bruce says, "Catesby went to Bath about Michaelmas 1605, it now appears, in consequence of the above invitation. Percy, and, as we may conclude, Lord Mounteagle, met him there." This must have been either immediately before, or immediately after, Catesby revealed the Plot to Sir Everard Digby. Mr Bruce thinks before.