"If your Lordship," he wrote,[361] "and the State think it fit to deal severely with the Catholics, within brief there will be massacres, rebellions, and desperate attempts against the King and State. For it is a general received reason among Catholics, that there is not that expecting and suffering course now to be run that was in the Queen's time, who was the last of her line, and last in expectance to run violent courses against Catholics; for then it was hoped that the King that now is, would have been at least free from persecuting, as his promise was before coming into this realm, and as divers his promises have been since his coming. All these promises every man sees broken." At the same time, he said that he[362] "will undertake to secure the Pope's promise not to excommunicate the King, if he will deal mildly with Catholics." As to plots against the king and the government, something of the kind, he declares, would have been contrived sooner, if the priests had not hindered it. [361] I use Jardine's modern rendering of this particular letter, in _Criminal Trials_, Vol. ii. p. 24. But the actual letter may be found among the S. P. Dom. James I., Vol. xvii., n. 9. [362] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 266. An earlier letter written by him from the Tower,[363] is thus summarized:--"Sir Everard Digby to Salisbury. Is willing to tell all he knows, but can remember nothing more than he has already confessed, except that Catesby intended to send the Earls of Westmoreland and Derby to raise forces in the North, and would send information to France, Spain, Italy, etc., of their success. Begs that the King will have compassion on his family." [363] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 261. Meanwhile examinations were constantly going on, not only of the prisoners in the Tower, but also of other persons, with regard to the Gunpowder Plot, and the correspondence on the subject was very large. Lord Salisbury wrote to the Lord Chancellor of Scotland,[364] assuring him that he "would rather die than be slack in searching the dregs of" the plot "to the bottom." Lady Markham wrote to Salisbury, that[365] the "Plot hath taken deep and dangerous root"; that many will not believe "that holy and good man," Father Gerard, had anything to do with it; and that Sir Everard Digby is the man from whom he must endeavour to obtain particulars about Walley--_i.e._, Father Garnet. Mrs Vaux was examined on the eighteenth of November, and she made no secret of Sir Everard having been a visitor at her house. Lady Lovel admitted knowing both Sir Everard and Catesby, though slightly. To have been a friend of Digby's was now very dangerous. Servants and retainers of the conspirators were arrested in Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and there examined. [364] Cal. Sta. Pa. Dom., 1603-10, p. 265. [365] _Ib._, p. 259.