332 DECLARATION OF THE TREASONS 



selves and their posterity, by committing so odious 

 a crime. 



But contrariwise, certain it is, Sir Ferdinando 

 Gorge accused Blunt, to have persuaded him to 

 kill, or at least apprehend Sir Walter Raleigh ; 

 the latter whereof Blunt denieth not, and asked 

 Sir Walter Raleigh forgiveness at the time of his 

 death. 



But this pretext, being the best he had, was 

 taken : and then did messages and warnings fly 

 thick up and down to every particular nobleman 

 and gentleman, both that evening and the next 

 morning, to draw them together in the forenoon to 

 Essex-house, dispersing the foresaid fable, That he 

 should have been murdered ; save that it was some 

 time on the water, sometime in his bed, varying ac 

 cording to the nature of a lie. He sent likewise the 

 same night certain of his instruments, as namely, 

 one William Temple, his secretary, into the city to 

 disperse the same tale, having increased it some few 

 days before by an addition, That he should have 

 been likewise murdered by some Jesuits to the num 

 ber of four : and to fortify this pretext, and to make 

 the more buz of the danger he stood in, he caused 

 that night a watch to be kept all night long, towards 

 the street, in his house. The next morning, which 

 was Sunday, they came unto him of all hands, ac 

 cording to his messages and warnings : of the nobi 

 lity, the earls of Rutland, Southampton, and the 

 lord Sands, and Sir Henry Parker, commonly called 

 the lord Mountegle ; besides divers knights and 



