Sir Everard Digby was chiefly enlisted by Catesby on account of his wealth. He promised to contribute L1500 towards the scheme, and to furnish, in addition, as much armour and as many arms, men, and horses as he might be able. Another large landowner was enlisted even later than Sir Everard, and for the same purpose. This was Catesby's cousin, Francis Tresham, of Rushton, in Northamptonshire. He, like Catesby and Percy, had been implicated in the rebellion of the Earl of Essex, so a plot was no novelty to him, and he consented to help the new one with money to the extent of L2000. Funds, again, were to be found in another quarter.[200] "Mr Percy himself promised all he could get out of the Earl of Northumberland's rents,"--in other language, he promised to embezzle, and apparently with the pious Catesby's full consent, every penny he was able of his master's money--"which was about L4000." Here, therefore, we have a fund of L7500, to say nothing of what Catesby and the other conspirators may have spent in the early stages of the plot. [200] Thomas Winter's Confession. S.P., Gunpowder Plot Book, n. 114. In the reign of James I., a sovereign sterling was worth very much more than it is at present; some people say ten times as much;[201] so if they are right, the Gunpowder Plot Fund amounted to L75,000 of our money. [201] See Dr Jessop, in _One Generation of a Norfolk House_, p. 285. What became of it? All the work done was voluntary and unpaid. The hiring of the cellar under the houses of Parliament could not have been a very heavy outlay; very many hundreds of pounds cannot have been spent in gunpowder; and if a good deal may have been invested in horses, that would only exhaust a comparatively small portion of so large a fund. Most likely the conspirators defrayed their own personal expenses while working for the plot, and even if they charged them to the fund, the men were so few in numbers that they cannot have amounted to much. Can it be that some immense bribe was given, or promised, to Guy Fawkes for the excessively dangerous part which he was to play in the drama? This is far from unlikely! The fugitives, after the discovery of the plot, carried a good deal of cash with them as they rode about, trying to raise an insurrection. Sir Everard Digby alone took[202] "above L1000 in ready coin" with him. According to the authority quoted, this would be the equivalent of L10,000 nowadays, a large amount to carry about the country. Yet, as will be seen when the proper time comes, he apparently made no use of it. The financial aspects of the Gunpowder Plot are as curious as they are incomprehensible. [202] _Narrative of the G. P._, Gerard, p. 92.