nd him at so unfrequented a residence.
Monteagle opens the letter, which is anonymous, pretends he cannot
understand it, and shows it to his secretary, Thomas Ward, who, he is
aware, is familiar with some of the conspirators; whom Ward, the next
evening, tells of the receipt of the letter, which Monteagle at once
takes to Whitehall, about three miles away, where he finds the Earl of
Salisbury (Principal Secretary of State) with other lords of the Council
together assembled, "ready for supper." The Government censor, or
suppress, the name of the place where the letter was delivered. The
conspirators and the Jesuit priests, who are involved in the plot
through the confessional, at once suspect Tresham; and Catesby and
Winter directly charge him with having betrayed them, which he denies,
while urging them to escape to France, and giving them money for the
purpose. Although Tresham is a sworn conspirator, he alone remains
behind and at large, after Fawkes's arrest (November 4-5, 1605), and
flight of the others into the country, and offers his services to the
Government. A week later he is taken to the Tower, where being ill, his
wife and serving-man, William Vavasour, and a maid servant constantly
attend him; an indulgence _never under any circumstances_ permitted to
anyone who was really a prisoner and upon a capital charge there.
Becoming worse, he dictates a letter for Vavasour to write to Lord
Salisbury, retracting a statement that he has been induced to make
respecting Father Garnet, and dies (December 23, 1605). This letter, or
dying statement, being misunderstood, is considered to be so incredible
that the writing is particularly inquired into. Vavasour thereupon, in
the presence of the Lieutenant of the Tower, writes an _untrue_
statement (consequently using a hand quite different from his ordinary
writing and, _in itself, identical with the writing of the anonymous
letter_), asserting that his master's dying statement was written by
Mrs. Tresham (though in every way proper for Vavasour to have written),
which she at once repudiates and says that Vavasour wrote it. He is then
examined in the Tower by Chief Justice Popham and Attorney-General Coke,
when he confesses that he wrote the dying statement at his master's
dictation; and had denied it "for fear." Fear of what? In case the
writing should bring into question some other and less innocent letter
written by him for his master.

Upon Tresham's death in the Tower,