Let us suppose that he asked himself this question. Even if he answered it in the affirmative, he might have refrained from acting, through fear that, in his vehemence in warning Sir Everard, there might be a danger of his breaking the seal of the confessional; or that in vaguely putting Sir Everard on his guard, he might raise the suspicion that knowledge obtained in the confessional was the occasion, or the impelling cause of that warning. Or he might reflect that, if cross-questioned by Sir Everard, it would be difficult to remember, at a moment's notice, exactly how much of his knowledge of Catesby's schemes was sealed by confession, and how much unsealed. Yet when he looked at his young host, and at his charming and excellent wife, still a mere girl, but with two little children beside her, in their beautiful and happy home, the model of what a Christian home ought to be, and a centre of Catholic society; and when he considered that hitherto Sir Everard Digby had been as upright in character as in stature, and as distinguished in virtue as in appearance, might he not have told himself that any effort was worth making to try to save him from a terrible crime and its terrible consequences? He was the only man who could do so! He alone had "a general knowledge of Mr Catesby's intention,"[187] untrammelled by the secresy of either oath or confessional, and he[188] "noticed the new intimacy that had sprung up between Catesby and Digby," and surmised truly enough that Digby had been "drawn in." Yet it is evident from Sir Everard's letters from the Tower, that Father Garnet never lifted a finger nor uttered a word to hinder his host from joining, or proceeding in, the conspiracy which was to work his ruin. This is the more remarkable because Father Garnet might have been expected not only to wish to save Sir Everard from the guilt and the dangers of the Plot, but also to prevent a conspiracy which he so much dreaded from being strengthened by the support of a man of considerable wealth. The most probable origin of his inaction in this matter was the same weakness of character which had exhibited itself in his speech to Sir Everard about the Pope and the "stirrs," and in his failure to reveal his "general knowledge, had of Mr Catesby out of confession," whereby he said he offended God and the King. His silence and inaction were certainly not owing to any temporary revival of confidence in his mind. On the contrary, he wrote:--[189] "I remained in the greatest perplexity that ever I was in my life, and could not sleep a' nights." He added, "I did offer up all my devotions and masses that God of his mercy and infinite Providence would dispose of all for the best, and find means which were pleasing unto Him, to prevent so great a mischief" [as the Gunpowder Plot]. "I knew that this would be infinitely displeasing to my Superiors in Rome, in so much as at my second conference with Mr Greenway, I said, 'Good Lord, if this