The Exciting Escapades of the Jesuit Jailbreaker

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n                          By means of further bribes to thensympathetic gaoler, Gerard arranged to take exercises on the roof of the nearbynCradle Tower, where he made contact with another Catholic prisoner, John Arden.nArden’s wife was permitted to visit him, bringing him food and clean linennweekly, and Gerard persuaded his gaoler that Arden had invited him to dinner,nand that if he turned a blind eye, he might slip across the garden one eveningnand spend some time with his friend. 

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nThis was managed and Gerard and Ardennhatched an unlikely plan, using Mrs Arden as an intermediary. Using his considerablencharm and the expenditure of more gold, Gerard managed to get the guard to locknhim up with Arden for the night, and when they were seemingly locked in, thengaoler departed. The two men had already loosened the stonework around thendoorway leading to the roof, so they broke through and onto the lead. Gerardnleft three letters behind: one to the Lord of the Council, explaining why henhad escaped, another to the Lieutenant also explaining and exonerating thengaoler of any involvement and a last to the gaoler himself, apologising fornescaping but saying they had not tried to bribe him as he was so honest henwould have reported their plan to his superiors. 

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nThe top of the Cradle Towernwas near to the moat around the Tower of London, and on the other side of thenmoat there were friends waiting, contacted by letters delivered by Mrs Arden.nFrom the roof, Arden threw a weighted string over the moat, which was tied tonrope that he and Gerard pulled across and tied firm, the rope drawn so tightnthat it was almost horizontal (they had hoped to slide down the rope, but thenroof of the Tower was the same height as the opposite wall). Arden went first,nand clinging to the rope he inched across the moat to the other side; Gerardnfollowed but had been so weakened by the torture and incarceration that henslipped under the rope and hung there, hardly able to move. 

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nAfter a short rest,nhe began to proceed hand over hand to the opposite bank, stopping several timesnand almost falling, and although he was a big man he was also strong, andneventually he made the other side, where Arden helped him over the lip of thenwall. With the help of their associates they vanished into the night – Ardennhad spent twelve years in the Tower and Gerard three. 

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nIn a typically generousnmove, Gerard arranged for a stranger to deliver a letter to the gaoler early innthe morning, who, being unable to read, asked this stranger to read it for him.nIt was an apology for deceiving him by escaping, but with an offer to help himnif he was in danger because of their actions – a horse was waiting and he wouldnbe taken to a place of safety over a hundred miles from London. He prevaricatednand went off to fetch his wife, but was intercepted by a fellow gaoler, whontold him the Lieutenant was looking for him as he blamed him for the escape.nThe gaoler returned quickly to the stranger, who took him to the waiting horse,non which he escaped into the countryside. A priest helped him to hide, andnafter over a year he was moved further and further from London until he wasnsafely far away and reunited with his wife and family. He lived comfortably fornthe rest of his life on a pension paid by Gerard and eventually converted tonCatholicism. 

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nThe authorities made no real attempt to find the escapees,nreasoning that if they had friends who could help them escape from the Tower ofnLondon, they had friends who would hide them efficiently enough that findingnthem would be impossible. Gerard remained in England, teaching and making manynconverts and was almost recaptured by pursuivants, whom he avoided by recoursento priest holes, until 1605 and the Gunpowder Plot, when things became far toondangerous in London for him. He escaped across the Channel of May 3^rdn1606, and slowly made his way to Rome, and he eventually became Assistant ofnthe Master of Novices at the Jesuit House at Louvain. The Jesuits encouragednhim to write an autobiography, not least as a handbook for future Missionariesnon how to operate in the cloak and dagger world of an undercover priest innElizabethan England (a copy from the original Latin text is at StonyhurstnCollege, near Hurst Green, Lancashire) and he also wrote, in English, annaccount of the Gunpowder Plot (the original, in Gerard’s own hand, is also atnStonyhurst). 

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nAfter other placements in Europe, Gerard returned to Rome in 1627,nwhere he became the confessor to the English College seminary, and ten yearsnlater he died there, aged 73. 

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