[403] "For this do I profess in the presence of Him that knoweth and searcheth all men's harts, that if I did not some tyme cast a stone into the mouth of these gaping crabbs, when they are in their prodigall humour of discourses, they wold not stick to confess dayly how contrary it is to their nature to be under your soverainty; though they confess (Ralegh especially) that (_rebus sic stantibus_) naturall pollicy forceth them to keep on foot such a trade against the great day of mart. In all which light and soddain humours of his, though I do no way check him, because he shall not think I reject his freedome or his affection ... yet under pretext of extraordinary care of his well doing, I have seemed to dissuade him from ingaging himself so farr," etc.--_Hatfield MSS._, cxxxv. f. 65. [404] _Criminal Trials_, ii. 358. [405] Father Gerard (_Narrative_, p. 201) denies in the most emphatic terms that he was the priest who said mass on this occasion. The point is fully discussed by the late Father Morris, S. J., in his Life of Father Gerard, pp. 437-438. [406] The accompanying facsimile of this portion of Faukes' confession exhibits the marks made by Coke, and his added direction in the margin, _hucusque_ ("thus far"). In the original his additions are in red ink. [407] It is singular that he should not mention Faukes himself as one of those who received the oath from Gerard. There is no mention in any document of Greenway as giving the oath to Bates, or anyone else. The facsimile of Faukes' signature, appended to his confession of November 9th, though affording unmistakable evidence of torture, gives no idea of the original, wherein the letters are so faintly traced as to be scarcely visible. It is evident that the writer had been so severely racked as to have no strength left in his hands to press the pen upon the paper. He must have fainted when he had written his Christian name, two dashes alone representing the other. This signature, with other of the more sensational documents connected with the Plot, is exhibited in the newly established museum at the Record Office. [408] _Dom. James I._ xviii. 97, February 27th, 1606, N. S. (Latin). [409] _Narratio de rebus a se in Anglia gestis_ (Stonyhurst MSS.). Published in Father G. R. Kingdon's translation under the title of _During the Persecution_. [410] _During the Persecution_, p. 83. [411] _Court and Character of King James_, p. 350 (ed. 1811). [412] Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, to whose charge the Powder Plot conspirators were committed, was afterwards dismissed from his office on a charge of embezzling the jewels of the Lady Arabella Stuart. [413] Presumably the same Arthur Gregory who at an earlier period had counterfeited the seals of Mary Queen of Scots' correspondence. [414] _Dom. James I._ xxiv. 38. [415] March 3rd, 1605-6 (Hatfield MSS.).