24- GUY l'AWKES, 01? THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 plot, and regretted his having yielded to the 
 suggestion of his master, Catesb'y, and engaged 
 in the conspiraey which had been attended 
 with such banef ul fruits. He was then handed 
 and quartered. Thus terminated the Thurs- 
 day's proceedings. 
 
 On the following day were drawn from the 
 Tower to the Old Palace in Westminster, over 
 against the Parliament House, where a scaf- 
 fold was erected for their execution, Thomas 
 Winter, the younger brother, Ambrose Rook- 
 wood, Robert Keyes, and Guido Fawkes the 
 miner, by some called the ' devil of the vaults 
 of whom says an old author, ' had he not been 
 a devil incarnate, he had never conceived so 
 villanous a thought, nor been employed in so 
 damnable an action/ 
 
 Winter and Rookwood appeared sorry for 
 having been guilty of such a diabolical offence ; 
 and, having hung a short time at the halter, 
 were dragged to the block, and there quickly 
 despatched. 
 
 Keyes made little or no show of repentance, 
 but went up the ladder in a most indifferent 
 manner, where, not staying long, he turned 
 himself off with a great leap which broke the 
 rope ; but after his fall, he was drawn to the 
 block, and divided into four parts. 
 
 Fawkes, who was much weakened by the 
 torture he had undergone for the purpose of 
 extracting from him any statements that might 
 prejudice those of whom the Government enter- 
 tained suspicions, with difficulty, and with the 
 assistance of the executioner, ascended the 
 scaffold, and expiated, with his life, the offence 
 of which he was the intended perpetrator. 
 
 James Brjrdone, Printer, 17 South Hanover Street, Kilii-bnrgh. 
 
 [No. 12. 
 
 GUY FAWKES, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 I EDINBURGH : 
 
 PRINTED & PUBLISHED BY J. BRY^DONE, 
 
 SOUTH HANOVER STREET. 
 
Gl.'V FAWKES, on 
 
 federates, according to aprevious agreement, as- 
 sembled in the house about the 11th of Decem- 
 ber, and a mine was immediately commenced. 
 The stone wall, however, which separated them 
 from the Parliament House, being found three 
 yards in thickness, Keyes and the younger 
 brother of John W right (who was enlisted as the 
 others had been) were called in to assist, and 
 the seven men were thus occupied until Christ- 
 mas-eve without their ever appearing in the 
 upper part of the house. \ All which seven, 1 
 says Fawkes in his examination, ' were gentle- 
 men of name and blood ; and not any was em- 
 ployed in or about this action, no, not so much 
 as in digging and mining, that was not a gen- 
 tleman. And while the others wrought, I stood 
 as sentinel to descry any man that came near ; 
 and when any person came near the place, up- 
 on warning given by me, they ceased until they 
 had again notice from me to" proceed ; and wo 
 seven lay in the house, and had shot and pow- 
 der, and we all resolved to die in that place be- 
 fore we yielded or were taken. 1 
 
 During their laborious employment, they had 
 much consultation respecting the scheme to be 
 adopted. It was supposed that Prince Henry 
 would accompany the King to the Parliament 
 House, and perish there with his father. The 
 Duke of York, afterwards Charles I., would then 
 be the next heir, and Percy undertook to secure 
 his person, and carry him off in safety as soon as 
 the fatal blow was struck. If this scheme should 
 fail, the Princess Elizabeth, who was under the 
 care of Lord Harrington at his house near Co- 
 ventry, might be easily surprised and secured by 
 a party provided in the country. It was the in- 
 tention to proclaim one of the Royal Family as 
 
 THE GrNPOWUEU l'LOT. 
 
 13 
 
 king. It was also arranged that Warwickshire 
 should be the general rendezvous, and that sup- 
 plies of horses and armour should be sent to the 
 houses of several of the conspirators in that 
 county, to be used as occasion might require ; 
 all which was accordingly attended to. 
 
 In the midst of these deliberations, Fawkes 
 brought intelligence that the Parliament had 
 again been prorogued from the 7th of February 
 to the 3d of October following. The conspira- 
 tors, therefore, separated for a time ; and, in 
 the mean while, John Grant of Norbrook, in 
 Warwickshire, and Robert Winter of Hud- 
 dington, were sworn in among their number. In 
 February (1G04-5,) their labours Avere resumed, 
 anoHhe stone wall nearly half broken through. 
 
 Father Greonway observes, that ' it seemed 
 almost incredible that men of their quality, ac- 
 customed to live in ease and delicacy, could 
 have undergone such severe labour; and espe- 
 cially that, in a few weeks, they could have 
 effected much more than as many workmen 
 would have done who had been all their lives 
 in the habit of gaining their daily bread by their 
 labour. 1 In particular, he remarks that ' it 
 was wonderful how Percy and Catesbv, who 
 were unusually tall men, could enduro'for so 
 long a time the intense fatigue of working day 
 and night in the stooping posture which was 
 rendered necessary by the straightness of the 
 place. 1 
 
 One morning, while working upon the wall, 
 they suddenly heard a rushing noise in a cellar 
 nearly above their heads. Atfirst, they feared 
 they had been discovered ; but Fawkes, beinir 
 despatched to reconnoitre, found that one 
 Jh-ight, to whom the cellar belonged, was sell- 
 
20 GUY FAWKES OR . 
 
 the concurrence of several of t he Privy Council, 
 that the cellar should that night be minutely 
 searched. In order, however, not to excite 
 premature alarm, they employed Sir Thomas 
 Knevet, a magistrate in Westminster, (who 
 had been a gentleman of the Privy Chamber 
 in the late Queen's time, and still held the 
 same office,) to superintend a complete search 
 of all the houses and cellars in the neighbour- 
 hood, under the pretence of looking for some 
 stuff and hangings in the keeping of Whine- 
 ard, the keeper of the King's wardrobe, which 
 had been missing ever since the death of the 
 late Queen. 
 
 Meanwhile, the visit of Lord Mounteagle and 
 the Lord Chamberlain had been quite sufficient 
 to alarm the vigilance of Fawkes. He went 
 out to inform Percy of what had happened, but 
 returned himself to his dangerous post ; fully 
 determined, as he afterwards declared, to have 
 blown up the house on the first appearance of 
 danger, and so to have perished together with 
 those who might come to apprehend him. 
 
 Shortly before midnight, on the eve of the 
 celebrated 5th of November, Sir Thomas Kne- 
 vet, accompanied by a sufficient number of as- 
 sistants, repaired secretly and suddenly to the 
 house. At the moment of their arrival, Fawkes 
 was stepping out of the door, dressed and boot- 
 ed, having, as he afterwards said, just then 
 ended his work. Lie was stayed, and Sir Tho- 
 mas Knevet proceeded to examine the cellar, 
 where he found thirty-six barrels of gunpowder 
 under the billets, in casks and hogsheads. Upon 
 this discovery, Fawkes was seized, and bound 
 hand and foot ; a watch, together with slow 
 matches and touchwood, were found upon his 
 
 THE GUXPOWDER PLOT. 5 
 
 end of that session of Parliament; and that 
 all such priests, or other religious persons, or- 
 dained since the same time, should not come 
 into England, or remain there, under the pain 
 of suffering death as in case of treason.' It 
 was also enacted by the same statute, ' that all 
 persons receiving or assisting such priests 
 should be guilty of a capital felony.' When a 
 person professing the Popish religion was con- 
 victed in a court of law of absenting himself 
 from the Established Church, he was termed a 
 ' Popish recusant convict ;' such a person was 
 liable, by the So Eliz. c. 1, to be committed to 
 prison without bail until he conformed and 
 made submission ; and if he did not, within 
 three months after conviction, submit and re- 
 pair to the Established Church, he must abjure 
 the realm ; and if he refused to swear, or did 
 not depart upon his abjuration, or if he return- 
 ed without licence, he was guilty of felony, and 
 might suffer death as a felon, without benefit 
 of clergy. No doubt, these rigorous laws were 
 not at all times enforced to their utmost ex- 
 tent ; but they placed the whole body of the 
 Catholics at the mercy of the Protestant 
 Government, who were enabled to crush or 
 spare them at their discretion or caprice ; for 
 them, therefore, there was no liberty, personal 
 or religious, but such as the Privy Council 
 thought proper to allow : and with reference 
 to their religion, the law gave them no rights, 
 and afforded them no protection. When we 
 remember that the victims of the laws above 
 enumerated considered themselves to be the 
 majority of the gross population of the country ; 
 that the chief sufferers were the principal no- 
 bility and gentry of the land, whose ancestors 
 
4 GUV FAWKES, OR 
 
 their necessity for the preservation of the Pro- 
 testant establishment from the practices of dis- 
 affected and turbulent fanatics, at that time 
 excited and encouraged by the mischievous in- 
 terference of the Pope, it may be observed that 
 their effect undoubtedly was to withdraw from 
 the Catholics the common rights and liberties 
 of Englishmen, and to place all persons, how- 
 ever loyal to the existing Government, who ad- 
 hered, from conscience and principle, to the 
 ancient religion, in a state of unmerited perse- 
 cution and suffering. By these laws, Catholics 
 were not only forbidden to use the rites and 
 ceremonies of their own faith, but were re- 
 quired to attend upon the services of a Church, 
 which, if conscientious and consistent, they 
 were bound to abhor as heretical and damna- 
 ble. If they refused or forbore to come to a 
 Protestant church on the Sabbath, they were 
 liable to a penalty of X } 20 for every lunar 
 month during which they absented themselves. 
 The public exercise of the social rites of their 
 own Church was virtually interdicted ; for it 
 was enacted, 6 that every priest saying mass 
 was punishable by a forfeiture of two hundred 
 marks, and every person hearing it by a for- 
 feiture of one hundred marks, and both were 
 to be imprisoned a year, and the priest until 
 his fine was paid.' The ministers of their re- 
 ligion, without whose presence they were pre- 
 cluded from the exercise of the Sacraments and 
 other rites, were in effect proscribed and 
 banished; for, by a statute passed in 1585, 
 (27 Ehz. c. 2,) it was enacted, ' that all Jesuits, 
 seminary and other priests, ordained since the 
 beginning of the Queers reign, should depart 
 out of the realm within forty days after the 
 
 Tin: <;i;\ powder plot. 
 
 person ; and a dark lantern, with a light in it, 
 was discovered in a corner behind the door of 
 the cellar. Fawkes at once avowed his pur- 
 pose to the magistrate, and declared that 'if 
 he had happened to be within the house when 
 he took him, he would not have failed to have 
 blown him up, house and all.' 
 
 Having left a sufficient guard with the pri- 
 soner, Sir Thomas Knevet repaired to White- 
 hah to give notice of his success to the Earl 
 of Salisbury. Such of the Council as slept at 
 Whitehall were called, and the others who 
 were in the town summoned ; and the doors 
 and gates being secured, all assembled in the 
 Kings bed-chamber. Fawkes was brought in 
 and questioned. Undismayed by the sudden- 
 ness of his apprehension, or by the circum- 
 stances of this nocturnal examination before 
 the King and Council, this resolute fanatic be- 
 haved with a Roman firmness of nerve, which 
 Idled the minds of all present with astonish- 
 ment. To the impatient and hurried questions 
 w hich were put to him with some violence and 
 passion, he answered calmly and firmly. He 
 gave his name as John Johnson, the servant 
 of Thomas Percy, declared his intention to 
 blow up the King, Lords, and Bishops, and 
 others who should have assembled at the open- 
 ing of the Parliament, refused to accuse any 
 one as his accomplice ; and upon being asked 
 by the King how he could enter upon so bloody 
 a conspiracy against so many innocent persons, 
 declared that 4 dangerous diseases require a 
 desperate remedy. 1 Being questioned as to his 
 intentions by some of the Scotch courtiers, he 
 told them that ' one of his objects was to blow 
 them back into Scotland. 1 After a great part 
 
8 
 
 erv FAWKES, OK 
 
 manded all Jesuits, Seminarists, and other 
 priests, to depart the realm before the 19th of 
 March following, and not to return, under the 
 penalty of being left to the rigour of the laws. 
 These repeated threats were practically en- 
 forced by proceedings in Parliament, and gene- 
 rally throughout the country, which distinctly 
 indicated to the dismayed Catholics a return 
 to the persecutions and indignities of the reign 
 of Elizabeth. 
 
 Though all were alike disappointed and dis- 
 contented, it is clear that the general body of 
 the English Catholics did not at this time con- 
 template forcible measures for the removal of 
 their grievances. Many, however, and, in par- 
 ticular, those who wore attached to the Jesuits 1 
 party, now wholly despairing of obtaining from 
 the justice of the King, or by peaceable means, 
 any alleviation of their degradation and 
 misery, and despising and rejecting the coun- 
 sel of the more moderate, readily lent an ear to 
 any scheme of vengeance however desperate 
 and sanguinary. 
 
 The design of blowing up the House of Lords 
 with gunpowder at the opening of Parliament, 
 and thus destroying, at a single blow, the King, 
 the Lords, and the Commons, was formed about 
 the summer of 1604. The conceiver of this 
 desperate and bloody vengeance was Robert 
 Catesby, a Catholic, the son of Sir William 
 Catesby, who had been several times imprisoned 
 for recusancy. It is uncertain whether, in 
 order of time, Catesby first disclosed his scheme 
 to John Wright or to Thomas Winter, the 
 former descended from a respectable family in 
 Yorkshire, the Wrights of Plowland, in Holder- 
 ness ; the latter, from the Winters in Hud- 
 
 tiie orN'rownE-n plot. 17 
 
 sisters had married Lords Stourton and Mount - 
 eagle. Indeed, Tresham so passionately re- 
 quired that Lord Mounteagle should have 
 warning of his danger, that very high words 
 ensued ; and when he was thwarted in his 
 wishes, ho hinted that the money he had pro- 
 mised would not be forthcoming ; and from 
 this time he ceased to attend their councils. 
 
 On Saturday, the 2b'th of October, ten days 
 before the meeting of Parliament, Lord Mount- 
 eagle unexpectedly gave a supper in a house 
 which he had not lately occupied. Circum- 
 stances have given rise to a belief that he was 
 privy to the plot at the time that he invited 
 his friends, and that the supper was only given 
 as a convenient opportunity of discovering the 
 conspiracy to them. Ue this as it may, whilst 
 he was at table, a letter was brought to him by 
 one of his pages, who stated that he had re- 
 ceived it in the street from a stranger, who 
 pressed its instant delivery into his master's 
 hands. The letter was as follows : — 
 
 ' My Lord, — Out of the love I bear to some 
 of your friends, I have a care for your preserv- 
 ation ; therefore, I would advise you, as you 
 tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift 
 off your attendance on this Parliament, for 
 God and man have determined to punish the 
 wickedness of the times. And think not 
 slightly of this advertisement ; but retire your- 
 self into the country, where you may expect 
 the event in safety. For though there be no 
 appearance of any stir, yet I say they will re- 
 ceive a terrible blow this Parliament ; and yet 
 they shall not see who hurts them. This coun- 
 sel is not to be contemned, because it may do 
 you good, and can do you no harm ; for the 
 
i() 
 
 G1Y FAWKIiS. OF? 
 
 who was not only his near relation, but had 
 been brought up with him, and had been en- 
 gaged with him in several treasonable conspi- 
 racies. Father Greenway states, that Catcsby 
 afterwards repented that he had admitted 
 Tresham into the confederacy ; that from the 
 moment of his introduction he mistrusted him ; 
 and that the most fearful forebodings, excited 
 and supported by ominous dreams portending 
 the failure of his scheme, took possession of his 
 mind. 
 
 As the day of meeting of Parliament ap- 
 proached, it was finally determined that Fawkes 
 should fire the mine with a slow match, which 
 would allow him a quarter of an hour to escape. 
 He was instantly to embark on board a vessel 
 in the river, and to proceed to Flanders with 
 the intelligence of what had been done. Sir 
 Everard Digby was to assemble a number of 
 Catholic gentlemen in Warwickshire on the 
 5th of November under pretence of a hunting 
 party, and Percy was to seize the Prince of 
 Wales, or the Duke of York if the Prince 
 should go to the Parliament House with the 
 King. One subject of discussion only arose, 
 whether and how the Catholic Peers should be 
 warned of their danger. Each conspirator had 
 friends, if not relations among them ; but the 
 danger of communicating the project to so 
 large a number of persons was considered so 
 imminent, that they despaired of saving all of 
 them ; and it was concluded that no express 
 notice should be given them, but only such per- 
 suasion, upon general grounds, as might deter 
 them from attending. Many of the conspira- 
 tors were averse to this advice, and angry at its 
 adoption, and Tresham in particular,' i'or his 
 
 THE GL'NI'OWUF.Il PLOT. 
 
 f) 
 
 dington, in Worcestershire, where they had 
 been in possession of estates since the time of 
 Henry VI. At a conversation held between 
 these conspirators, it was agreed that Winter 
 should go over to the Netherlands to meet Ve- 
 lasco, constable of Castile, who had arrived at 
 Flanders on his way to England to conclude a 
 peace between James and the King of Spain, 
 and him to solicit his Majesty to recal the penal 
 laws against the Catholics, and to admit them 
 into the rank of his other subjects. Winter 
 received no encouragement from Velasco that, 
 he would stipulate in the treaty of peace for 
 the liberties of the English Catholics ; and so 
 returned to England, taking Fawkes along 
 with him, but without, at that time, communi- 
 cating to him the nature of Catesby's purpose. 
 
 Guido, or Guy Fawkes, whose name has 
 been more generally associated with this plot 
 than that of any of the other conspirators, in 
 consequence of the prominent part he under- 
 took in the execution of it, was a gentleman of 
 good family and respectable parentage in York- 
 shire. His father, Edward Fawkes, was a 
 notary at York, and held the office of Registrar 
 and Advocate of the Consistory Court of the 
 Cathedral. Of the education and early history 
 of Guy Fawkes nothing is known ; but having 
 spent the little property he derived from his 
 father, he enlisted as a soldier of fortune in the 
 Spanish army in Flanders, and was present at 
 the taking of Calais by the Archduke Albert 
 in 1598. He was well known to the English 
 Catholics, and had been despatched by Sir 
 William Stanley and Owen from Flanders to 
 join Christopher Wright on his embassy to 
 Philip II., immediately after Queen Elizabeth's 
 
1 GUY V AWKES, OR 
 
 death. Father Grcenway. who knew all the 
 conspirators intimately, describes him as 1 a 
 man of great piety, of exemplary temperance, 
 of mild and cheerful demeanour, an enemy of 
 broils and disputes, a faithful friend, and re- 
 markable for his punctual attendance upon re- 
 ligious observances.' His society is stated, by 
 the same authority, to have been 4 sought by all 
 the most distinguished in the Archduke's camp 
 for nobility and virtue. ' If this account of his 
 character be correct, we are to look upon this 
 man, not, according to the popular notion, as a 
 mercenary ruffian ready for hire to perform 
 the chief part in any tragedy of blood, but as 
 an enthusiast whose understanding had been 
 distorted by superstition, and in whom fana- 
 ticism had conquered the better feelings of 
 nature. His conduct, after the discovery of the 
 plot, is quite consistent with the character of 
 a fanatic. 
 
 Soon after Winter's return to London, Tho- 
 mas Percy, the relation and confidential steward 
 of the Earl of Northumberland, joined the four 
 conspirators already mentioned. They met by 
 appointment at a house in the fields beyond St 
 Clement's Inn, and Catesby, Percy, Thomas 
 Winter, John Wright, and Fawkes, then seve- 
 rally took an oath in the following form : — - 
 ' You swear by the blessed Trinity, and by the 
 Sacrament you now propose to receive, never 
 to disclose, directly or indirectly, by word or 
 circumstance, the matter that shall be proposed 
 to you to keep secret, nor desist from the exe- 
 cution thereof until the rest shall giveyou leave.' 
 This oath was given by them to each other in 
 the most solemn manner, ' kneeling down upon 
 their knccs ; with their hands laid on a primer.' 
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 15 
 
 Soon after Fawkes' return from Flanders, the 
 Parliament was further prorogued from Octo- 
 ber to the 5th of November. These repeated 
 prorogations alarmed the conspirators, and 
 led them to fear that their project was sus- 
 pected. Their alarms, however, having been 
 discovered to be groundless, Catesby purchased 
 horses, arms, and powder, and, under the pre- 
 tence of making levies for the Archduke in 
 Flanders, assembled friends who might be 
 armed in the country when the first blow was 
 struck. As considerable sums of money were 
 necessary for these purposes, it was proposed 
 to admit into the confederacy three wealthy 
 men — Sir Everard Higby, of Tilton and Dry- 
 stoke, in Rutlandshire, who was then only 
 twenty- four years of age ; Ambrose Hook wood, 
 of Coldham Hall, in Stanningfield, Suffolk ; and 
 Francis Tresham, of llushton, in Northamp- 
 tonshire, the two first intimate friends, and the 
 last a near relation of Catesby. These gentle- 
 men were afterwards sworn in. 
 
 The particulars of what took place at the 
 communication of the plot to Tresham by 
 Catesby are unknown ; however, he at first 
 seemed to agree to it cordially, and undertook 
 to furnish ^2000 towards the promotion of the 
 scheme. The sincerity of Tresham seems to 
 have been always suspected by some of the con- 
 spirators ; and probably nothing but the temp- 
 tation of the great wealth of which he had 
 lately become possessed upon his father's death, 
 and his devotion to the Catholic religion, would 
 have induced them to consent to his reception . 
 amongst them. He was known to be mean, 
 treacherous, and unprincipled ; and his charac- 
 ter must have been fully understood by Catesby, 
 
18 
 
 GUY FAWKES, OR 
 
 danger is over as soon as you have burned this 
 letter. And I hope God will give you the grace 
 to make use of it, to whose holy protection I 
 commend you. — To the Right Honourable the 
 Lord Mounteagle.' — This letter has been as- 
 cribed to Anne, the daughter of Lord Vaux, to 
 Mrs Abington, Lord Mounteagle's sister, to 
 Percy, and to others ; but there seems greater 
 reasons for believing that no one of these was 
 the writer of it, but rather that Tresham was 
 its author. 
 
 On the same evening, Lord Mounteagle shew- 
 ed the letter to several Lords of the Council, 
 who, with him, agreed that no steps should bo 
 taken until the King returned from hunting at 
 Royston. The contents of the letter and its 
 communication to many of the Council, as well 
 
 fr 
 
 as to the Secretary of State, soon reached the 
 ears of the conspirators ; but, though their 
 danger was evident, and the vessel which was 
 to convey Fawkes to Flanders was lying in the 
 river, they made no attempt to escape. All 
 suspected Tresham to be their betrayer, and 
 he was accused by them, but he vehemently de- 
 nied the accusation. Since they did not know 
 accurately to what extent their proceedings 
 had been divulged, they had still hope of effect- 
 ing their design, especially as, upon examina- 
 tion, Fawkes found that the cellar was not 
 watched and had not been disturbed. When, 
 however, they heard that, on the 31st of Octo- 
 ber, the letter had been shewn to the King, 
 their hope diminished and their fears increased. 
 Some of the conspirators left London ; others 
 concealed themselves in an obscure lodging; 
 all held themselves ready to start at a moment's 
 warning. Fawkes alone, with the extraordi- 
 
 THE GUNPOWDER n.OT. 
 
 7 
 
 were led by many circumstances to look forward 
 with hope to tho succession of James. They 
 remembered that he was born of Catholic pa- 
 rents, and that he had been baptized by a 
 Catholic archbishop ; they relied upon the feel- 
 ings of dislike with which they supposed that 
 he must regard the party who had caused the 
 execution of his mother ; they knew that seve- 
 ral of the ordinances of the lloman Church 
 were approved by him ; and they had heard and 
 believed that he had, on more than one occa- 
 sion, expressed a willingness to be reconciled 
 to the Apostolic See. But, besides these gene- 
 ral presumptions of a disposition favourable to 
 their party, the leading Catholics were attached 
 to the cause of James, by the express assur- 
 ances of a toleration for their religion, which 
 were generally reported to them from various 
 quarters, and, in particular, by individuals de- 
 spatched to Edinburgh for the purpose of as- 
 certaining his intentions upon that subject, 
 
 But the fond hopes and expectations of the 
 Catholics were dissipated and destroyed before 
 six months of James v Government had passed 
 away. Symptoms of an anti-Catholic disposi- 
 tion appeared as soon as he felt himself firmly 
 seated on the throne. De Beaumont says, 
 that ' within a month after his arrival in 
 London, he answered an objection made in 
 conversation to the appointment of Lord Henry 
 Howard to a seat in the Privy Council, on ac- 
 count of his being a Catholic.' The same 
 authority farther reports, that ' he maintain- 
 ed openly at tablo that the Pope was the 
 true Antichrist, with other like blasphemies 
 worthy of his doctrine/ A proclamation, dated 
 Februarv '22, 1 603-4, in which the King com- 
 
ZZ GUY FAWKKS, OR 
 
 of the night had been spent in examination, 
 Fawkes was sent with a guard to tho Tower. 
 
 After having received the news of the appre- 
 hension of Fawkes, it was agreed by the con- 
 spirators, who had assembled at Ashby Ledgers, 
 to take up arms with the few followers they 
 could collect, and to endeavour to excite to 
 rebellion the Roman Catholics in the counties 
 of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, together 
 with those of Wales. This scheme was imme- 
 diately adopted ; arms and horses were seized 
 upon, and different parties despatched over 
 the country. But all their efforts were in vain, 
 and the failure of the project so complete, 
 that their proceedings served no other pur- 
 pose than to point them out as members of 
 the confederacy. A party of the King's troops 
 pursued some of the conspirators to Holbeach, 
 and here an obstinate defence was made, in 
 which the two Wrights, Percy, and Catesby 
 were killed, and Rookwood and Thomas Win- 
 ter wounded. The others were eventually 
 taken. Tresham died a natural death in pri- 
 son ; and on the 27th January 1606, eight per- 
 sons, namely, Robert Winter, Thomas Winter, 
 Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, 
 Robert Keyes, and Thomas Bates, were tried 
 at Westminster by a special commission for 
 being concerned in the Powder Plot. Sir Eve- 
 rard Digby was arraigned and tried separately 
 for the same crime. Upon the trials, no wit- 
 ness was orally examined ; the evidence con- 
 sisted of the written declaration of Digby's 
 servant and of the prisoners themselves. 
 There is reason to believe that Fawkes was 
 tortured in order to make him confess more 
 fully. All the prisoners were found guilty, 
 
 GUY FAWKES, 
 
 OR 
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 The conspiracy called the Gunpowder Plot 
 must, for various reasons, be considered as one 
 of the most remarkable occurrences in English 
 history. The atrocity of the design, the ex- 
 tent of the mischief intended, and the myste- 
 rious manner in which the scheme is represented 
 to have been detected upon the eve of its exe- 
 cution, would alone be sufficient to give a 
 surpassing interest to the story ; while the 
 observance of the anniversary periodically 
 awakens the remembrance of Guy Fawkes and 
 his associates, and perpetuates the memory of 
 the transaction by rendering its leading fea- 
 tures familiar even to our children. 
 
 In order to form a fair judgment of the 
 causes which produced the Gunpowder Trea- 
 son, and to comprehend the motives of those 
 who were engaged in it, it is necessary to con- 
 sider generally the state of the English Catho- 
 lics at that period, and to take a summary 
 view of the penal restrictions and liabilities 
 to which, at the commencement of the reign of 
 James L, the adherents to the Roman Church 
 w ere subject. 
 
 The laws passed against recusants in the 
 latter years of the reign of Elizabeth were ex- 
 tremely severe ; and whatever may have been 
 the object with which they were passed, and 
 without discussing tho debatable question of 
 
] 4 GUY I ANVKES, OR 
 
 ing off his coals in order to remove. Fawkes 
 carefully surveyed this large vault situated 
 immediately below the House of Lords, and 
 perceived its fitness for their purpose. The 
 difficulties connected with breaking through 
 the wall, its thickness, the damp of the situa- 
 tion, for water was continually oozing through 
 the stone work, and the danger of discovery 
 from noise, disposed the confederates to aban- 
 don their operations, and to possess them- 
 selves of the cellar of Bright. The vault was 
 immediately hired, and thirty-six barrels of 
 powder were carried by night from Lambeth ; 
 iron bars and other tools that had been used 
 in mining were also thrown among the powder 
 that the breach might be the greater, and the 
 whole was covered over with faggots. Lumber 
 of various kinds was placed in the cellar, to pre- 
 vent any suspicion of the curious or the watch- 
 ful. 
 
 In May 1605, the preparations were com- 
 plete : the conspirators, having marked the 
 door, in order that it might be seen if any 
 one entered the vault, consented to separate. 
 Before their separation, however, it was pro- 
 posed that an attempt should be made to ob- 
 tain foreign co-operation, by informing Sir 
 William Stanley and Owen of the project. This 
 was agreed to on condition of their being sworn 
 to secrecy, and Fawkes was despatched to 
 Flanders for the purpose of conferring with 
 them. Sir Edmund Baynham was also sent on 
 a mission to the Pope, that, when the news of 
 the explosion arrived at Rome, he might be 
 prepared to negotiate on behalf of the conspi- 
 rators, and to explain that the design of the 
 plot was the re-establishment of Catholicism. 
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 13 
 
 They then heard mass, and received tho Sacra- 
 ment from Father Gerard, a Jesuit mission- 
 ary, in confirmation of their vow. Thomas 
 Winter and Fawkes both state the secret was 
 not communicated to Gerard. Percy took the 
 next step. He was a gentleman pensioner, 
 and, upon pretence that it would be convenient 
 to him when in attendance in that capacity, he 
 purchased of one Ferris the remainder of a 
 short term which he had in the lease of a house 
 adjoining the Parliament House. It was, 
 accordingly, taken in Percy's name, under a 
 written agreement with Ferris, the original of 
 which, dated May 24, 1604, may be seen at 
 the State-Paper Office. From the cellar of 
 this house a mine was to be made through the 
 wall of the Parliament House, and a quantity 
 of gunpowder and combustibles to be deposit- 
 ed immediately under the House of Lords. 
 Fawkes, who was unknown in London, and 
 had assumed the name of Johnson, acted as 
 Percy's servant, and took possession of the 
 house. Parliament was soon afterwards ad- 
 journed till the 7th February; and the con- 
 spirators, having first hired a house in Lam- 
 beth for the preparation of timber for the 
 mine, and a place of deposit for combustibles, 
 agreed to meet in London about the begin- 
 ning of November. The custody of the house 
 in Lambeth was committed to Robert Keyes, 
 the son of a Protestant clergyman in Derby- 
 shire, but himself a Catholic : the oath of se- 
 crecy was administered to him also. 
 
 The proceedings of the Star-Chamber, during 
 the interval of their meetings, so exasperated 
 the conspirators, that they became more eager 
 than ever about the plot. 'Catesby and his con- 
 
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 and upon all the sentence of death was passed. 
 The prisoners, after their condemnation and 
 judgment, were again removed to the Tower, 
 where they remained till the Thursday follow- 
 ing, on which day four of them, viz. Sir Eve- 
 rard Digby, Robert Winter, John Grant, and 
 Thomas Bates, were drawn upon sledges and 
 hurdles to a scaffold erected at the western end 
 of St Paul's Church-yard. Great pains were 
 taken to render the spectacle of the execution 
 as imposing as possible ; and, among other ar- 
 rangements made in order to guard against 
 any popular tumult, a precept was issued by 
 the Lord Mayor to the Aldermen of each ward 
 in the city, requiring him to provide an able 
 and sufficient man, armed with a halbert, to 
 stand at the door of every dwelling-house in 
 the streets through which the conspirators 
 were to bo drawn to execution, from seven 
 o'clock in the morning until the return of the 
 Sheriff. 
 
 Sir Everard Digby was the first appointed 
 for execution, who ascended the scaffold with a 
 firm and manly bearing; and, in a speech 
 short but expressive, stated his conviction in 
 the justice of the cause he had been engaged 
 in in its religious aspect, but regretted it had 
 been against the legal authority, for which ho 
 asked forgiveness of God, of the King, and the 
 whole kingdom. Having engaged in prayer, 
 he ascended the ladder, and was immediately 
 launched into the unseen world. 
 
 Winter and Grant expressed themselves in 
 nearly the same terms, who, after having prayed, 
 ascended the fatal drop. 
 
 ^ Bates, who was the last executed, expressed 
 himself as sorry for his co-operation in the 
 
ft GUY FAWKL-S, OR 
 
 had served the Kings of England, before the 
 Reformation, in the highest offices of state, and 
 whose honours and possessions were the proofs 
 of royal favour and distinction conferred on 
 their predecessors; when we consider, moreover, 
 that these persons were thus impoverished and 
 disgraced for their adherence to that ancient 
 religion to whose rites and ceremonies they 
 were attached by early and hereditary associa- 
 tions, and whose power and influence they 
 were bound by the strongest obligations to 
 maintain and defend against what was to them 
 an abominable heresy, we shall be at no loss 
 to comprehend the bitter feelings of discontent 
 which prevailed amongst the English Catholics 
 under Elizabeth, and which produced a con- 
 stant succession of plots and rebellions, moro 
 or less important and alarming, during tho 
 last twenty years of her reign. 
 
 Althou|h it must be admitted that the laws 
 in existence against the Catholics at this period 
 were not constantly enforced against them, it 
 must not, on the other hand, be supposed that 
 they were merely suspended, in terrorem, over 
 the heads of those against whom they were di- 
 rected, for the purpose of restraining the se- 
 ditious attempts of the disaffected. There is no 
 doubt that they were often practically applied 
 to a very severe extent ; and there were few 
 Catholic families who had not in some degree 
 experienced their rigour. Of this, many in- 
 stances might be adduced. 
 
 As Elizabeth's life declined, it was natural 
 that a party so oppressed should direct their 
 attention with much anxiety to her probable 
 successor. Having abandoned all expectation 
 of an avowed Catholic heir to the crown, they 
 
 THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 
 
 1.0 
 
 nary courage which he had displayed through- 
 out the transaction, took up his station in tho 
 cellar. Thus they passed three days of anxiety 
 and suspense. 
 
 On the Monday afternoon, the Lord Cham- 
 berlain, whose duty it was to see that all the 
 arrangements for "the meeting of Parliament 
 w ere complete, went to the Parliament House, 
 accompanied by Lord Mouhteagle, who, it was 
 said, expressed a desire to be present at the 
 search. They first went into the Parliament 
 Chamber, and remained there a considerable 
 time ; and then, for the alleged purpose of 
 looking for some stuff of the King's, they visit- 
 ed the vaults and cellars under the house. 
 They remarked the great store of coals and 
 wood there, and perceived Fawkes standing in 
 a corner. The Lord Chamberlain, with affect- 
 ed carelessness, inquired to whom this unusu- 
 ally large provision of fuel belonged ; and being 
 informed that the cellar and its contents be- 
 longed to Percy, and that he had rented it for 
 about a year and a half, retired without mak- 
 ing any more particular search, to report his 
 observations to the King. On their way, Lord 
 Mounteagle expressed his fears and suspicions 
 on the ground, that, though he was an intimate 
 friend of Percy, and had lived with him for 
 many years on terms of familiarity, he had not 
 the least notion that he ever inhabited this 
 house. Upon hearing tho statement of tho 
 Lord Chamberlain, who declared the store of 
 coals and wood to be beyond all proportion to 
 the wants of a person who dwelt so little in tho 
 house as Percy, and that the man (Fawkes) in 
 the cellar looked like ' a very tall and desperate 
 fellow, 1 it was determined by the King, with