Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/132

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A History of the Gunpowder Plot

knew little more than he had previously mentioned. On December 2, he stated that Catesby revealed the plot to him in October; that Garnet was frequently with him at Coughton; that Catesby had agreed to warn the Romanist Peers. On December 10, he repeated his story as to Catesby having announced the King's death. On January 9, he said that Catesby had administered the oath to him, but he did not receive the Sacrament after it.

In the examinations of Robert Winter,[1] Grant, Keyes, and Rookewood there is nothing very remarkable to be noticed, but those of Bates are worth comment. On December 4,[2] he revealed how Catesby, his master, had induced him to join the plot; how he had spoken of the plot in confession to Father Greenway, who had approved of it; how that, terrified by the explosion, he went away from Holbeach; that from Holbeach a message had been sent to Talbot of Grafton. On January 13, he gave an account of his being sent from Norbrook with a letter from Sir Everard Digby to 'Mr. Farmer' (Father Garnet) at Coughton. Garnet and Greenway both read the letter, and the latter returned with him to see Catesby at Huddington. Garnet, according to Bates, said to Greenway, on reading the letter, that 'they (the conspirators) would have blown up

  1. On January 17 (1606), R. Winter gave the account of how the conspirators had been absolved by Father Hart, alias Hammond, S.J., who knew of the plot having failed.
  2. In this confession his name is written 'Bate.'