470 LETTERS FROM BIRCH. 



book and the letter in the gilt apple, and have advisedly 

 perused and weighed all the examinations and collections, 

 which were formerly taken ; wherein we might attribute a 

 good deal of worthy industry and watchful inquiry to my 

 Lord of Canterbury. We thought fit also to take some 

 new examinations; which was the cause we certified no 

 sooner. Upon the whole matter, we find the cause of his 

 imprisonment just, and the suspicions and presumptions 

 many and great ; which we little need to mention, because 

 your majesty did relate and enforce them to us in better 

 perfection than we can express them. But, nevertheless, 

 the proofs seem to us to amount to this, that it was possible 

 he should be the man ; and that it was probable likewise 

 he was the man ; but no convicting proofs that may satisfy 



of Balaam s Ass, which was dropped in the gallery at Whitehall. Just at the time 

 of publishing this proclamation, he happened to cross the Thames, and inquiring 

 of the watermen, what news &quot;? they, not knowing him, told him of the proclama 

 tion. At landing, he muffled himself up in his cloak, to avoid being known, 

 but had not gone many paces, when one Mr. Maine, a friend of his, meeting 

 and discovering him, warned him of his danger ; and being asked what he 

 would advise him to do? recommended it to him to surrender himself, which he 

 did to the Earl of Southampton. He denied himself to be the author of the 

 libel ; but his study being searched, among his papers were found many parts 

 of the book, together with relics of those persons who had been executed for the 

 gunpowder treason, as one of Sir Everard Digby s fingers, a toe of Thomas 

 Percy, some other part of Catesby or llookewood, and a piece of one of Peter 

 Lambert s ribs. He was kept prisoner in the Tower till March 1618-9, when 

 the true author of the libel was discovered to be John Williams, a lawyer. The 

 discovery was owing to this accident : a pursuivant, in want of money, and 

 desirous to get some by his employment, waited at the Spanish ambassador s 

 door, to see if he could light upon any prey. At last came out Mr. Williams, 

 unknown to the pursuivant, but carrying, in his conceit, the countenance of a 

 priest. The pursuivant, therefore, followed him to his inn, where Williams 

 having mounted his horse, the pursuivant came to him, and told him, that he 

 must speak a word or two with him. &quot; Marry, with all my heart,&quot; said Wil 

 liams : &quot; what is your pleasure 1&quot; &quot; You must light,&quot; answered the pursuivant, 

 &quot;for you are a priest.&quot; &quot; A priest!&quot; replied Williams, &quot; I have a good war 

 rant to the contrary ; for I have a wife and children.&quot; Being, however, obliged 

 to dismount, the pursuivant searched him, and in his pocket was found a bundle 

 of papers, sealed up, which the pursuivant going to open, Williams made some 

 resistance, pretending they were evidences of a gentleman whose law businesses 

 he transacted. The pursuivant insisting upon opening the papers, among them 

 was found Balaam s Ass, with new annotations ; of which, upon examination, 

 Williams confessed himself to be the author. He was brought to the trial, and 

 condemned at the King s Bench at Westminster, the 3d of May, 1619, and 

 executed at Charing Cross, on the 5th. MS. Letters of Mr. Thomas Lorkin to 

 Sir Thomas Puckering, Bart, dated at London, June the 24th and 30th, 1613, and 

 March the 16th, 1618-9. and May the 4th and 5th, 1619, among the Harleian 

 MSS. vol. 7002. See likewise Camdeni Annales Regis Jacobi, p. 43, 44. It is 

 but justice to the memory of our great antiquary, Sir Robert Cotton, Bart, to 

 remark here a mistake of Dr. Thomas Smith in his Life of Sir Robert, p. 26, 

 prefixed to his Catalogue of the Cottonian Library, where he has confounded the 

 Cotton mentioned in the beginning of this note, with Sir Robert Cotton, and 

 erroneously supposed, that the suspicion of having written the libel had fallen 

 upon the latter. 



