Sir Everard must have envied Tresham his fate, when he heard that he had
died in the Tower, especially as he was allowed to have his wife to
attend him in his illness; although his death was caused by a painful
disease.[366] Sir William Waad, the Lieutenant of the Tower, had a
consultation of three doctors--not from motives of mercy, but in order
that, "by great care and good providence," he might "die of that kind of
death he most" deserved, and, in spite of his disappointment, Waad seems
to have felt a grain of satisfaction, when writing to Salisbury to
announce his death,[367] in stating that he died "with very great pain."
His death took place only four days before that appointed for the trial,
and, whatever may have been his sufferings, who can doubt that Sir
Everard would gladly have changed places with him.
[366] Jardine's _Gunpowder Plot_, p. 124. _N.B._--By many people,
Tresham's death was attributed to poison.--See _The Month_, No. 366,
p. 493. Jardine's _G. P._, p. 127, and Goodman's Court of King
James, p. 107.
[367] S. P. Dom. James I., 23 Dec. 1605.
In his solitude in the Tower, Sir Everard wrote the following lines
which, if considerably lacking in merit from a poetical and critical
point of view, have some interest on account of their pitiful, though
calm and dignified tone, as well as the affection which they exhibit
towards his wife and his children; and, as the Protestant Bishop Barlow,
in his preface to their publication in 1678, says, "though they be not
excellent, yet have" they "a good tincture of Piety and devotion in
them."
* * * * *
Come grief, possess that place thy Harbingers have seen,
And think most fit to entertain thyself:
Bring with thee all thy Troops, and sorrow's longest Teem
Of followers, that wail for worldly pelf:
Here shall they see a Wight more lamentable,
Than all the troop that seem most miserable.
For here they may discry, if perfect search be made,
The substance of that shadow causing woe:
An unkind Frost, that caused hopeful Sprouts to fade;
Not only mine, but other's grief did grow
By my misdeed, which grieves me most of all,
That I should be chief cause of other's fall.
For private loss to grieve, when others have no cause
Of sorrow, is unmeet for worthy mind;
For who but knows, that each man's sinful life still draws
More just revenge than he on earth can find.
But to undo desert and innocence,
Is, to my mind, grief's chiefest pestilence.
I grieve not to look back into my former state,
Though different that were from present case;
I moan not future haps, though forced death with hate
Of all the world were blustred in my face:
But oh I grieve to think that ever I
Have been a means of others misery.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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