Catholics or foreigners. Fawkes returned in August, having succeeded no further than to obtain a promise from Owen that he would communicate with Stanley, who was at that time absent in Spain. In September, Sir Edmund Baynham, a gentleman of an ancient family in Gloucestershire, was admitted into the whole, or part of the plot, and dispatched to Rome, not to reveal the project, but to endeavour to gain the favour of the Vatican when the blow should be struck. The rest remained in anxious expectation of the day,-it was near at hand,-when the king still further prorogued the parliament from the 3rd of October to the 5th of November. The conspirators thought that they were suspected. Thomas Winter undertook to go into the house on the day on which prorogation was to be made, and observe the countenances and behaviour of the lords commissioners. He found all tranquil: the commissioners were walking about and conversing in the House of Lords, just over the thirty-six barrels of gunpowder he returned, and told his companions that their secret was safe. About Michaelmas it was agreed to admit three more Catholic gentlemen, who were known to have a command of ready money, into the plot. The first of these was Sir Everard Digby, of Drystoke, in Rutlandshire, an enthusiastic young man, and a bosom friend of Catesby. Digby had immense estates, a young wife, and two infant children; but, after some struggle with his domestic feelings and conscience, he yielded to Catesby, promised to furnish fifteen hundred pounds for furthering the plot, and to

collect his Catholic friends on Dunsmore Heath in Warwickshire, by the 5th of November, as if for a hunting party. The second was Ambrose Rookwood, of Coldham Hall, Suffolk, the head of a very ancient and opulent family. Like Digby, he had long been the bosom friend of Catesby; and his romantic attachment to that chief conspirator seems to have been a more leading passion than his religious fanaticism. He had a magnificent stud of horses, which made his accession very desirable. Like most of the others, he at first shuddered at the prospect of so much slaughter, but his scruples were quieted by Catesby; and, to be near the general rendezvous at Dunsmore, he removed with his family to Clopton, near Stratford-on-Avon. He had suffered fines and prosecutions, but he was still wealthy, and, until entering the gunpowder treason, a peaceful, happy man. The third accession was in Francis Tresham, eldest son and heir of Sir Thomas Tresham, who had recently succeeded his father in a large estate in Northamptonshire. Sir Thomas had felt the vengeance of the penal laws: he had been brought before both the council and the Star Chamber in Elizabeth's days; he had suffered heavy fines and imprisonments in his own words, he had undergone "full twenty years of restless adversity and deep disgrace, only for testimony of his conscience." His son Francis had been engaged very actively with the Earl of Essex, and was only saved from the block by his father's bribing a great lady and some people about the court with several thousand pounds; yet, after that narrow escape, Francis

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Tresham had had his hand in several plots. appears, however, that he did not enjoy the confidence of the desperate men with whom he had been engaged, and that he passed for a fickle, mean-spirited, and treacherous man: but he was Catesby's near relation, and he had money, whereof (after taking the oath) he engaged to furnish two thousand pounds. But, from the moment Tresham was admitted, Catesby became a prey to misgivings and alarms, and he sorely repented having confided his secret to such an individual.

As the great day-the 5th of November-approached, the conspirators had several secret consultations at White Webbs, a house near Enfield Chase, then a wild, solitary place.* Here it was resolved that Fawkes should fire the mine by means of a slow-burning match, which would allow him time to escape before the explosion of the gunpowder (there was a ship, hired with a ship, hired with Tresham's money, lying in the Thames, and in this Guido was to embark and to proceed to Flanders); that, after the catastrophe, the Princess Elizabeth, in case of their losing the Prince of Wales and Prince Charles, was to be immediately proclaimed queen, and a regent appointed during her minority. But now they felt the difficulty there would be in warning and saving their friends, and most of them had dear friends and relations in parliament. In the Upper House, for example, the Lords Stourton and Mounteagle, both Catholics, had married sisters of Francis Tresham, and Tresham was exceeding earnest that they should have some warning given them, in order to keep away from parliament. Percy also was eager to save his relative the Earl of Northumberland; and Kay, or Keys, the decayed gentleman who had had charge of the house at Lambeth, was equally anxious to save his friend and patron, Lord Mordaunt, who had given food and shelter to his wife and children. There were others whose fate excited the liveliest interest; and all of them were desirous of warning the youthful Earl of Arundel. But Catesby undertook to prove to them that most of the Catholics would be absent, seeing that their presence would be useless, as they could not prevent the passing of new penal laws against their religion. "But," said Catesby, "with all that, rather than the project should not take effect, if they were as dear unto me as mine own son, they also must be blown up." A day or two after, Tresham suddenly and unexpectedly came upon Catesby, Thomas Winter, and Fawkes, at Enfield Chase, and once more required that warning should be given directly to his brother-in-law Mounteagle. Catesby and his two determined comrades hesitated; and, then, it is said that Tresham told them that, as he could not furnish the money he had promised for some time to come, it would be much better for them to defer the execution of the plot till the closing of parliament, and pass the interval safely in Flanders. Catesby,

There was another lone house which they frequented, at Erith, on the right bank of the Thames, a little below Woolwich.

VOL. III.

Thomas Winter, and Fawkes, remained fixed to their purpose. Here the dark story becomes doubly dark and doubtful; but it should seem that Tresham went away and warned more persons than Lord Mounteagle. There is also ground for believing that Sir Everard Digby and some others of the conspirators put their particular friends on their guard, though they may have adopted a different method, and one not likely to reveal the secret. The Lord Mounteagle had a mansion at Hoxton which he seldom visited; but, on the 26th of October, ten days before the intended meeting of parliament, he most unexpectedly ordered a supper to be prepared in that house. As he was sitting at table, about seven o'clock in the evening, his page presented to him a letter, which he said he had just received from a tall man, who had departed, and whose features he could not recognise in the dark. His lordship, still sitting at table, opened the letter, and, secing that it had neither date nor signature, he tossed it to a gentleman in his service, desiring him to read it aloud. The gentleman read :

my lord out of the love i beare to some of youer frends i have a caer of youer preservacion therefor i would advyse yowe as yowe tender youer lyf to devyse some exscuse to shift of youer attendance at this parleament for god & man hathe concurred to punish the wickednes of this tyme & thinke not slightlye of this advertisment but retyere youre self into youre contrie wheare yowe maye expect the event in safti for thowghe theare be no apparance of anni stir yet i saye they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parlement & yet they shall not seie who hurts them this councel is not to be contemned because it maye do yowe good and can do yowe, no harme for the dangere is passed as soon as yowe have burnt the letter and i hope god will give yowe the grace to make good use of it to whose holy proteccion i commend yowe."

The authorship of this letter has been attributed to several persons, to women as well as to men, but it seems to us all but certain that it was really written by, or under the dictation of, Tresham. Lord Mounteagle, who, notwithstanding his religion, was on good terms with the court and council (he had recently received an important favour from the king), carried the letter the same evening to Whitehall, and showed it to Cecil and several of the ministers. The king was away, hunting the fearful hare at Royston," and Cecil resolved that nothing should be done until his return. On the following morning Mounteagle's gentleman, who had read the letter at the supper-table, warned Thomas Winter that it had been delivered to Cecil. Winter carried this alarming intelligence to Catesby, who instantly suspected the indiscretion or treachery of Tresham. This suspicion was the stronger, from the circumstance that Tresham had absented himself for several days, having made it be given out that he had gone into Northamptonshire. Nothing, however, occurred to show that government had caught the clue; and, on the 30th

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meaning of the mysterious epistle, but it is proved beyond a doubt that both Cecil and Suffolk, the lord chamberlain, had read the riddle several days before, and had communicated it to several lords of the council before the subject was mentioned to the king. But as this was an opportunity of flattering James on the qualities in which he most prided himself, the courtly ministers proclaimed to the public that all the merit of the discovery was his. Coke, upon the trial of the conspirators, declared that his majesty had made it through a divine illumination; and, in the preamble of the act for a public thanksgiving to Almighty God, it was roundly said that "the conspiracy would have turned to the utter ruin of this whole kingdom, had it not pleased Almighty God, by inspiring the king's most excellent majesty with a divine spirit to interpret some dark phrases of a letter showed to his majesty above and beyond all ordinary construction, thereby miraculously discovering this hidden treason." It appears to have been the advice of Cecil that nothing should be done to interrupt "the devilish practice" till the night before the king went to the House," but rather suffer them to go on to the end of their day." On Sunday the 3rd of November the conspirators were warned by Lord Mounteagle's gentleman that the king had seen the letter and made great account of it. Upon this Thomas Winter sought another interview with Tresham, and they met that same evening in Lincoln's Inn Walk. Tresham spoke like a man beside himself; and said that, to his certain knowledge they, were all lost men unless they saved themselves by instant flight. But these infatuated men would not flee, nor did Tresham himself either flee or seek concealment. Catesby, Winter, and all the rest, were now convinced that Tresham was in communication with Mounteagle, and perhaps with Cecil. Percy insisted that they ought to see what the following day-the last day of anxiety and doubt-would bring forth, before they thought of other measures. Their vessel still lay in the Thames ready to slip its cable at a moment's notice. It was, however, resolved that Catesby and John Wright should ride off, on the following afternoon, to join Sir Everard Digby, at Dunchurch. That very night, in spite of all their suspicions, Fawkes, with undaunted courage, went to keep watch in the cellar.

On Monday afternoon Suffolk, the lord chamberlain, whose duty it was to see that all arrangements for the meeting of parliament were properly made, went down to the House accompanied by Lord Mounteagle. After passing some time in the Parliament Chamber, they descended to the vaults and cellars, pretending that some of the king's stuffs were missing. They threw open the door of the powder-cellar, and there they saw, standing in a corner, a very tall and desperate fellow." It was Guido Fawkes, whose wonderful nerves were proof even to this trial. The chamberlain, with

⚫ See letter of the Earl of Salisbury (Cecil) to Sir Charles Cornwallis, in Winwood's Memorials.

| affected carelessness, asked him who he was? He said that he was servant to Mr. Percy, and looking after his master's coals. "Your master," said the courtier, "has laid in a good stock of fuel;" and, without adding anything else, he and Mounteagle left the cellar. When they were gone their way Fawkes hurried to acquaint Percy with their visit, and then returned to the cellar, resolute to the last, hoping against hope! At about two o'clock in the morning (it was now the fifth of November) Fawkes undid the door of the cellar, and came forth, booted and spurred, to look about him. At that instant, and before he could move back, he was seized and pinioned by a party of soldiers under the command of Sir Thomas Knevett, a magistrate of Westminster. If the desperado had only had time to light a match they would all have been blown into the air together. When they had bound him hand and foot, they searched his person and found a watch (which was not common then) some touchwood and tinder, and some slow matches. Within the cellar and behind the door was found a dark lantern with a light burning in it. The prisoner was carried to Whitehall, and there, in the royal bed-chamber, he was interrogated by the king and council, who seem to have been afraid of him, bound and helpless as he was, for his voice was still bold, his countenance unchanged, and he returned with scorn and defiance their inquisitive glances. His name, he said, was John Johnson,-his condition that of a servant to Mr. Thomas Percy. He boldly avowed his purpose, and said he was sorry it was not done. When pressed to disclose who were his accomplices, he replied that he could not resolve to accuse any. The king asked how he could have the heart to destroy his children and so many innocent souls that must have suffered? "Dangerous diseases," said Fawkes," require desperate remedies." One of the Scottish courtiers inquired why he had collected so many barrels of gunpowder? "One of my objects," said the conspirator, was to blow Scotchmen back into Scotland." In the morning of the 6th of November he was removed to the Tower, James sending instructions with him that he was to be put through all the grades of torture in order to elicit confession.* For three or four days he would confess nothing (it appears that he was not severely tortured till the 10th); but his accomplices declared themselves by flying and taking up arms, that is, all of them except Tresham, who remained in London at his usual place of abode, showed himself openly in the streets, and even went to the council to offer his services in apprehending the rebels. Catesby and John Wright had departed for Dunchurch the preceding evening: Percy and Christopher Wright waited till they learned Fawkes's arrest; and Rookwood and Keyes, who were little known in London, determined to remain to see what would

"The gentler tortures are to be first used unto him, et sic per gradus ad ima tendatur, and so God speed you in your good work.”— Instructions, Nov. 6, in the State Paper Office.

follow. In the morning when they went abroad they found that all was known, and that horror and amazement were expressed in every countenance. Keyes then left London; but Rookwood, who had placed relays of his fine horses all the way to Dunchurch, lingered to the last moment, in the hope of collecting more intelligence. It was near the hour of noon when he took horse; but, once mounted, he rode with desperate haste. He soon put the hill of Highgate between him and the capital: he spurred across Finchley Common, where he overtook Keyes, who kept him company as far as Turvey in Bedfordshire. From that point Rookwood galloped on to Brickhill, where he overtook Catesby and John Wright. Soon afterwards they came up with Percy and Christopher Wright, and then all five rode together with headlong speed, some of them throwing their cloaks into the hedge to ride the lighter, till they came to Ashby St. Legers, in Northamptonshire, at six o'clock in the evening. The distance from London was eighty miles, which Rookwood had ridden in little more than six hours. If they had chosen to ride on to some sea-port they might certainly have escaped with their lives; but they had no such design. Some of the hunting party, with whom was Winter, a principal conspirator, had taken up their quarters for the night in the house of Lady Catesby, at Ashby St. Legers, and were sitting down to supper when Rookwood, Percy, and the others from London, entered the apartment, covered with dirt, and half dead with fatigue. Their story was soon told; and then the whole party, taking with them all the arms they could find, mounted and rode off to Dunchurch. There they found Sir Everard Digby surrounded by many guests, Catholic gentlemen invited to hunt on Dunmoor, but fully aware that the meeting had reference to some avenging blow to be struck in London, though only a few of them had been admitted into the whole of the secret. But these guests presently perceived that the main plotters had miscarried, and so, without standing on the order of their going, they stole away in the course of the night; and when day dawned, Digby, Catesby, Percy, Rookwood, and the rest, were left alone, with a few servants and retainers. Catesby knew the number of Catholics living in Wales and the adjoining counties, and he suggested that if they made a rapid march in that direction they might raise a formidable insurrection. They got again to their horses, rode through Warwick, where they seized some cavalry horses, leaving their own tired steeds in their place, and then went to Grant's house at Norbrook, where, it appears, they were joined by a few servants, and procured some arms. They then rode across Warwickshire and Worcestershire, to a house belonging to Stephen Littleton, called Holbeach, on the borders of Staffordshire, where they arrived on Thursday night the 7th of November. On their way they had called upon the Catholics to arm and follow them; "but not one man," said Sir Everard Digby, came to take our part, though

we had expected so many." In several places the Catholic gentry drove them from their doors with the bitterest reproaches, telling them that they had brought down ruin and disgrace on them and their religion.

By this time the conspirators were closely followed by Sir Richard Walsh, sheriff of Worcester, attended by many gentlemen of the country and the whole posse comitatus. Although the road was open towards Wales, they resolved to stand at bay, and defend themselves in the house of Holbeach. If their people had remained firm, they might possibly have repulsed the tumultuary assault of the sheriff, but these serving-men stole away during the night. Early on the following morning Stephen Littleton, who had been admitted into the whole plot, got out of the house, and fled through fear; and Sir Everard Digby went off, in order, as he said, to bring up succour. Sir Everard had scarcely got out of the house when some damp gunpowder which they were drying before a fire ignited and blew up with a tremendous explosion. Catesby was burnt and blackened and nearly killed, and two or three of the others were seriously injured. They now began to fear that God disapproved of their project; and Rookwood and others, "perceiving God to be against them, prayed before the picture of our Lady, and confessed that the act was so bloody as they desired God to forgive them." Robert Winter, filled with horror and affright, stole out of the house, and came up with Stephen Littleton in a wood hard by, and shortly after his evasion Catesby's servant, Thomas Bates, escaped in the same manner. About the hour of noon Sir Richard Walsh surrounded the mansion, and summoned the rebels to lay down their arms. A successful resistance was now hopeless; but, preferring to die where they stood, to suffering the horrid death prescribed by the laws, they refused to surrender, and defied their numerous assailants. Upon this, the sheriff ordered one part of his company to set fire to the house, and another to make an attack on the gates of the court-yard. The conspirators, with nothing but their swords in their hands, presented themselves as marks to be shot at. Thomas Winter was presently hit in the right arm and disabled. "Stand by me, Tom," cried Catesby," and we will die together." And presently, as they were standing back to back, they were both shot through the body with two bullets from one musket. Catesby crawled into the house upon his hands and knees, and, seizing an image of the Virgin which stood in the vestibule, clasped it to his bosom, and expired. Two other merciful shots dispatched the two brothers, John and Christopher Wright, and another wounded Percy so badly that he died the next day. Rookwood, who had been severely hurt in the morning, by the explosion of the powder, was wounded in the body with a pike, and had his arm broken by a bullet. At a rush he was made prisoner, and the other men, wounded and disarmed, were seized within the house. Sir Everard Digby was overtaken near