Series 3 > Mary Queen of Scots and the Babington plot

xliv MARY STUART AND THE BABINGTON PLOT
practical, and as pliant and pleasant in company as ever
I knew.’ His companion, Charnock, who was with him
at Barnard’s Inn, as well as in the Spanish camp, said, ‘ I
knew he was an excellent soldier, a man skilful in languages,
and learned besides. When I met him in England, I was
glad to renew old acquaintance.’1
What Savage did when he left the college in December
1581 does not appear. It was then, very possibly, that
he enlisted under the Prince of Parma. The Queen’s
Counsel at his trial seemed to beheve that he was there
almost up to the time when the conspiracy was hatched.
But the Diary informs us that he returned as early as the
10th of May 1583, and the next thing noted concerning
him is his departure on the 16th of August 1585. If (as
is likely) he remained at college all that time, we must
presume that he was studying for the priesthood, and
should have to consider him a pritre manquS, a somewhat
unbalanced pietist, rather than a dare-devil soldier ready
for any violence, as the Crown lawyers tried to represent
him. However this may be, the sum-total of our informa¬
tion about him produces the impression of an intelligent
but harmless, simple, cheery fellow, over whom Gilbert
Gifford had won complete ascendancy and could make
him call black, white. In his examination of 14 August,
Savage said, ‘ He [Gilbert] told me that an English
Treatise was being made at the Rheims College to be
sent over hither, inveighing against such as would seek
her Majesty’s death; but that the same was but a device
to blind the eyes of the Privy Council to have less fear
for her Majesty’s person.’ 2
Like all English Catholics, Savage no doubt had the
most profound respect for Allen and the English College.
But now, on Gilbert’s unsupported word, he reverses all
1 State Trials, p. 132.
2 Boyd, p. 681.