Sir Everard had not been many days in the Tower before the Government had a search made at Harrowden, the house of his young friend, Lord Vaux, whose mother was suspected of having been privy to the plot. Great hopes were entertained of finding here Digby's great friend, Father Gerard, who also lay under suspicion of having been concerned in it.[351] "The house was beset with at least 300 men, and those well appointed." "They searched for two or three days continually, and searched with candles in cellars and several dark corners. They searched every cabinet and box in her [Mrs Vaux's] own closet, for letters, &c." A letter to Salisbury stated[352] that Mrs Vaux "gave up all her keys; all the rooms, especially his closet, narrowly searched, but no papers found. She and the young Lord strongly deny all knowledge of the treason; the house still guarded." Brother Foley says[353] "that house was strictly searched and watched for nine days, with the especial hope of seizing Father Gerard. Though he escaped, the pious lady of the house was herself carried off to London." She was severely examined before the Privy Council; and Sir Everard Digby was pressed to say whether he had not been very lately in her company--indeed, it was on this point that "they did in a Fashion offer" him "the torture"--but, although she admitted, in her examination,[354] that Sir Everard Digby, Robert Catesby, and "Greene and Darcy, priests," had been visitors at her house, and, when she refused to say where Father Gerard was, she was told she must die,[355] nothing could be proved against her and she was liberated. [351] _Narrative of the G. P._, Gerard, p. 139. [352] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 256. [353] _Records, S. J._, Series I. p. 527. [354] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 259. [355] _Records, S. J._, Vol. iv. p. 9. It must have been a great comfort to Lady Digby to receive the scraps of paper inscribed with lemon juice from her husband. It is easy to imagine the eagerness and care with which she would hold them before the fire in order to develope their writing, with anxiety to make every letter legible and fear lest the paper should become scorched. Sir Everard calls her his "Dearest"; but, in letters which might possibly fall into hands for which they were not intended, it would have been out of place to make much display of affection, and the only exhibition of that kind is to be found in a poem which will be quoted later. In her straits for money, she applied, and not altogether without success, to Salisbury; for we find her writing to him thus:--[356]