Philip Marlow Sidney

“ The more, indeed, that one examines into the way in which this comedy at Hoxton was staged, the more one is amazed at the skill with which every item in the programme was carried out, down to the last detail. Tresham, Mounteagle, and Warde were no ordinary actors!
Some general idea that a Plot was being concocted seems to have been known to a good many Romanists besides those (like Mounteagle and Garnet) immediately in touch with the active conspirators themselves. Amongst those who must have had some inkling of what was going on was Garnet's too faithful friend, the infatuated Anne Vaux. ”

“ I venture, therefore, to offer the following explanation of the proceedings that led up to the delivery of the letter at Hoxton. Garnet, recognizing that in any event, successful or unsuccessful, the Gunpowder Plot would bring forth the most disastrous consequences upon the Jesuit mission in England, the reputation of the whole of the English Roman Catholics, and the position of the Holy See itself, determined finally to prevent the Plot taking place. In arranging his plans to stop the Plot, he knew that he had no power to get such men as Catesby, Faukes, and Winter to withdraw. ”

“ All the time he seems to have been labouring like a man who possessed some great secret, which, if he could only divulge it, would demonstrate to the world that he was not quite so guilty as external evidences tended to indicate.
If Garnet induced Anne Vaux to communicate with Mounteagle and Tresham, we may be sure that he went about his work with sufficient craft to cover up his tracks, so that he could never be suspected by his co-religionists of having had a hand in the business. ”

“ They would not listen to him, and if suspected by Catesby of being likely to betray the Plot, Garnet's very life might be in danger. He was dealing with desperate men, who would hesitate at nothing, when the safety of their scheme was concerned. ”

“ That they were to be prevented from going to the Parliament by the conspirators she did not, of course, know, the final deliberations of the plotters to that end having only been taken at a very late date, and, of course, in secret. ”

“ His life was not spared, because he dared not, in the Tower, reveal his share in giving warning for the reasons already mentioned, namely, he would then be accused by the Privy Council, since he had known so much, of having been a conspirator himself ”