According to Gerard, after 'five or six days ... it pleased God to deliver them (the Priests) into their hands by permitting the searchers at last to light upon the very place itself.' This statement of Gerard is, nevertheless, untrue.[1] Bromley never hit upon the hiding-place,[2] for the two priests surrendered themselves voluntarily, as had their servants. The two fathers had, it appeared, suffered so much from cramp and want of air that they could hold out no longer, and were obliged to give in. Garnet, writing, when a prisoner in the Tower, on March 2, to Anne Vaux,[3] thus tells the story in his own words, and his account flatly contradicts Gerard's version as reported above, viz.—
'I purpose, by God's grace, to set down here briefly, what hath passed since my apprehension, lest evil reports, or untrue, may do myself or others injury.
'After we had been in the hole 7 days and 7 nights, and some odd hours, every man may well think we were wearied; and indeed so it was, for we continually sat, save that some times we could half stretch ourselves, the place being not high enough; and we had our legs so
- ↑ Gerard's error has been blindly copied by nearly all the writers who have told the story of Garnet's apprehension.
- ↑ The fact that neither of the two holes was discovered by Bromley shows with what marvellous skill they had been devised and located by Owen.
- ↑ The original MS. is dated 'Shrovetuesday,' and addressed by Garnet 'For Mrs. Vaux or one of our's. Keep all discreetly secret.'
