set had had frequent consultations with Simon Forman, a noted dealer in love-philtres, then in high fashion: he was also a conjuror, and died on the day he had prognosticated, which was before the Overbury proceedings had been instituted. It did not appear that Forman had any active concern in the murder; but it was proved that Mrs. Turner procured the poison from Franklin, the apothecary, and handing it to the warder, Weston, the latter, under her instructions, and with the complicity of the Lieutenant, administered it. In that rare book, Truth brought to Light by Time, we read that Overbury was poisoned with aquafortis, white arsenic, mercury, powder of diamonds, lapis cortilus, great spiders, and cantharides,-whatever was, or was believed to be, most deadly, "to be sure to hit his complexion." The poisoning was perpetrated with fiendish perseverance. It appeared in evidence that arsenic was always mixed with his salt. Once he desired pig for dinner, and Mrs. Turner put into it lapis cortilus; at another time he had two partridges sent him from the Court, and water and onions being the sauce, Mrs. Turner put in cantharides instead of pepper; so that whatever Overbury took was poisoned.

The guilt of all the parties was completely established, and they were executed at Tyburn. Mrs. Turner was hanged on the 15th of November, 1615, and excited immense interest. She was a woman of great beauty, and had much affected the fashion of the day. Her sentence was to be "hang'd at Tiburn in her yellow Tiffiny Ruff and Cuff, she being the first inventor and wearer of that horrid garb." The Ruff and Cuff were got up with yellow starch, and in passing her sentence, Lord Chief Justice Coke told her that she had been guilty of the seven deadly sins, and declared that

as she was the inventor of the yellow-starched ruffs and cuffs, so he hoped that she would be the last by whom they would be worn. He accordingly ordered that she should be hanged in the gear she had made so fashionable. The execution attracted an immense crowd to Tyburn, and many persons of quality, ladies as well as gentlemen, in their coaches. Mrs. Turner had dressed herself specially for her execution: her face was highly rouged, and she wore a cobweb-lawn ruff, yellowstarched: an account printed next day, states that "her hands were bound with a black silk ribbon, as she desired, and a black veil, which she wore upon her head, being pulled over her face by the executioners ; the cart was driven away, and she left hanging, in whom there was no motion at all perceived." She made a very penitent end. As if to insure the condemnation of yellow starch, the hangman had his hands and cuffs of yellow," which," says Sir S. D'Ewes, "made many after that day, of either sex, to forbear the use of that coloured starch, till it at last grew generally to be detested and disused."

The two principal criminals, the wretched Somerset and his wife, had their better merited punishment commuted into confiscation of their property, and an imprisonment of some years in the Tower.

A FAREWELL FEAST IN THE TOWER.

BISHOP GARDINER was a prisoner in the Tower, while Sir John Markham was lieutenant of the fortress; at which period, the long examinations published in the first edition of Foxe's Actes and Monuments,

disclose a remarkable picture of what occurred when a prisoner of high rank received his discharge. At Midsummer, in 1551, the bishop was daily expecting that this would be his happy lot, and he, therefore, commanded his servant, John Davy, to write the rewards, duties and gifts due to Master Lieutenant, and the Knight-Marshal, and the King's servants, such as he intended to bestow on his departing. He also caused him to send for a piece of satin, to be divided among the Lady Markham and others, as he should think meet: which satin was bought, and this deponent (John Davy) had the most part thereof in keeping. Also the said bishop, about the same time, made his farewell feast (as they then called it) in the Council-chamber in the Tower, containing two or three dinners, whereat he had the Lieutenant and the Knight-Marshal and their wives, with divers others, as Sir Arthur Darcy and the lady his wife, Sir Martin Bowes, Sir John Godsalve, with divers others, such as it pleased the Lieutenant and Knight-Marshal to bring.

Sir John Markham the Lieutenant, and Sir Ralph Hopton the Knight-Marshal, when examined on the same occasion, both asserted that the bishop called it his farewell supper; but when asked whether there was 66 any custom of any such farewell supper to be made of the prisoners when leaving the Tower?" they answered that they could not depose.

Before the above period, Sir John Gage was Constable of the Tower, but, as a Roman Catholic, much distrusted; wherefore the government of the fortress rested chiefly with the Lieutenant. But it appears that the same distrust extended towards Sir John Markham.

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT DETECTED.

THE materials for elucidating the causes, circumstances, and consequences, of the Powder Plot have been sifted over and over again; notwithstanding the abundance of documents in the State Paper Office, they are not so complete as they were once known to be; and "it is remarkable that precisely those papers which contribute the most important evidence against Garnet and the other Jesuits are missing." (Mr. Jardine's Narrative.) The Plot-room, in which the plot was hatched, is shown to this day in Catesby Hall, near Daventry; the dark lantern which Guido Fawkes carried when apprehended, is shown in the Ashmolean collection at Oxford; and the famous monitory letter to Lord Mounteagle, is preserved in our Parliament Offices: but the tangled thread of the foul transaction remains to be unravelled-to show how " seven gentlemen of name and blood," as Fawkes called the conspirators, attempted to proceed to the extremity of murdering a kingdom in its chief representatives."

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The plot originated in the discontents of the Roman Catholics under James I., and ended with the detection, examination and execution of the principal conspirators. The first meeting of five of themCatesby, Wright, Winter, Fawkes and Percy, took place at a house in the fields beyond St. Clement's Lane, where, having severally taken an oath of secrecy and fidelity, the design was discussed and approved; after which they all adjourned to an upper room in the same house, where they heard mass and received the sacrament from Father Gerard, a Jesuit missionary, in confirmation of their vow. Next was

purchased a house, with a garden attached to it, next door to the Parliament House, by Percy, a relative of the Duke of Northumberland, under the pretence of using it as his official residence, he being a gentleman pensioner. The keys of this house were confided to Fawkes, who was not known in town, and who was to act as Percy's servant. From the cellar of this house a mine was to be made through the wall of the Parliament House, and a quantity of combustibles was then to be deposited beneath the House of Lords. To facilitate operations, another house was taken at Lambeth, where the necessary timber and combustibles were collected in small quantities, and removed by night to the house at Westminster. A man named Keyes, who had been recently received into the conspiracy, was placed in charge at Lambeth; and he, with John Wright's brother, Christopher, were enlisted to assist in the construction of the mine.

On the 11th December, 1604, the "seven gentlemen" entered the house late at night, having provided themselves with tools, and a quantity of hard-boiled eggs, baked meats, and patties, to avoid exciting suspicion by going abroad frequently for provisions. All day long they worked at the mine, carrying the earth and rubbish into a little building in the garden, spreading it about, and covering it carefully over with turf. In this manner, these determined men worked away at a wall three yards in thickness, without intermission, until Christmas eve; Fawkes wore a porter's frock over his clothes, by way of disguise. At the same time they consulted respecting ulterior measures; planned the seizure of the Duke of York, afterwards Charles I., and of the Princess Elizabeth; they also arranged for the