Stewart Books, Nugae Antiquitae

[6th January 1606]. Lord Harington (age 66) to Sir John Harington, at Bathe.

Much respected Cosin,

Our great care and honourable charge, entrusted to us by the Kings Majesty, hath been matter of so much concern, that it almost effaced the attention to kyn or friend. With Gods assistance we hope to do our Lady Elizabeth (age 9)¹ such service as is due to her princely endowments and natural abilities; both which appear the sweet dawning of future comfort to her royal father. The late divilish conspiracy² did much disturb this part. The King hath got at much truth from the mouths of the crew themselves; for guilt hath no peace, nor can there be guilt like theirs. One hath confessed that he had many meetings at Bathe about this hellish design; you will do his Majesty unspeakable kindness, to watch in your neighbourhood, and give such intelligence as may furnish inquiry. We know of some evil-minded catholics in the west, whom the prince of darkness hath in alliance; God ward them from such evil, or seeking it to others. Ancient history doth shew the heart of man in divers forms: we read of states overthrown by craft and subtilty; of Princes slain in field and closet; of strange machinations devised by the natural bent of evil hearts; but no page can tell such a horrid tale as this. Well doth the wise man say, that "the wicked imagineth mischeif in secret." What, dear cosin, coud be more secret or more wicked? A wise King and wise council of a nation at one blow destroyed in such wise as was now intended, is not matchable. It shameth Caligula, Erostratus, Nero, and Domitian, who were but each of them fly-killers to these wretches. Can it be said that religion did suggest these designs; did the spirit of truth work in these mens hearts? How much ia their guilt encreasd by such protesting! I cannot but mark the just appointment of Heaven in the punishing of these desperate men, who fled to our neighbourhood; you hear they sufferd themselves by the very means they had contrived for others. A barrel of gunpowder was set on fire during the time that the house was besieged, and killed two or three on the spot; so just is the vengeance of God! I have seen some of the chief [Robert Catesby and Thomas Percy], and think they bear an evil mark in their foreheads, for more terrible countenances never were looked upon. His Majesty did sometime desire to see these men, but said he felt himself sorely appaird at the thought, and so forbare. I am not yet recoverd from the fever occasioned by these disturbances. I went with Sir Fulk Grevile (age 51)³ to alarm the neighbourhood, and surprize the villains, who came to Holbach; was out five days in peril of death, in fear for the great charge I left at home. Wynter⁴ hath confessed their design to surprize the Princess at my house, if their wickedness had taken place at London. Some of them say, she woud have been proclaimed Queen. Her Highness doth often say, "What a Queen shoud I have been by this means? I had rather have been with my royal father in the Parliament-house, than wear his crown on such condition." This poor lady hath not yet recoverd the surprize, and is very ili and troubled.

Note 1. Daughter of James I (age 39), afterward Queen of Bohemia.

Note 2. The gunpowder-plot.

Note 3. Afterward Lord Brooke, who was "stabbed to death with a knife by hisservant, Sept. 1, 1628." Smith's Obituary in Bibl. Sloan.

Note 4. There were two Winters concerned ip this conspiracy, Thomas and Robert (age 38).