[22] "We had all been blowne up at a clapp, if God out of His Mercie and just Reuenge against so great an Abomination, had not destined it to be discovered, though very miraculously, even some twelve Houres before the matter should have been put in execution."--_Cecil to Cornwallis_, November 9th, 1605. Winwood, _Memorials_, ii. 170. [23] M. l'Abbé Destombes, _La persécution en Angleterre sous le règne d'Elizabeth_, p. 176. [24] _Catholique Apology_, third edition, p. 403. [25] Goodman's _Court of King James_, i. 121. [26] Mr. Sidney Lee, _Dictionary of National Biography_, _sub nom._ [27] Goodman's _Court of King James_, i. 121. Ed. J.S. Brewer. [28] _Court of King James_, p. 64. [29] Of this affair,--the "Bye" and the "Main,"--Goodman says, "[This] I did ever think to be an old relic of the treasons in Q. Elizabeth's time, and that George Brooks was the contriver thereof, who being brother-in-law to the Secretary, and having great wit, small means, and a vast expense, did only try men's allegiance, and had an intent to betray one another, but were all taken napping and so involved in one net. This in effect appears by Brooks' confession; and certainly K. James ... had no opinion of that treason, and therefore was pleased to pardon all save only Brooks and the priests."--_Court of King James_, i. 160. [30] _A plain and rational account of the Catholick Faith_, etc. Rouen, 1721, p. 200. [31] Dodd, _Church History of England_, Brussels, 1739, i. 334. [32] _Constitutional History_, i. 406, note, Seventh Edition. In the same note the historian, discussing the case of Father Garnet, speaks of "the damning circumstance that he was taken at Hendlip in concealment along with the other conspirators." He who wrote thus can have had but a slight acquaintance with the details of the history. None of the conspirators, except Robert Winter, who was captured at Hagley Hall, were taken in concealment, and none at Hendlip, where there is no reason to suppose they ever were. Father Garnet was discovered there, nearly three months later, in company with another Jesuit, Father Oldcorne, on the very day when the conspirators were executed in London, and it was never alleged that he had ever, upon any occasion, been seen in company with "the other conspirators." [33] _History_, i. 255, note. CHAPTER II. THE PERSONS CONCERNED. AT the period with which we have to deal the chief minister of James I. was Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury,[34] the political heir of his father, William Cecil, Lord Burghley,[35] and of Walsingham, his predecessor in the office of secretary. It is clear that he had inherited from them ideas of statesmanship of the order then in vogue, and from nature, the kind of ability required to put these successfully in practice. Sir Robert Naunton thus describes him:[36]