A Child's History of England

by Dickens, Charles

  it wonderfully knowing in him to surprise the people by pardoning

  these three at the very block; but, blundering, and bungling, as

  usual, he had very nearly overreached himself. For, the messenger

  on horseback who brought the pardon, came so late, that he was

  pushed to the outside of the crowd, and was obliged to shout and

  roar out what he came for. The miserable Cobham did not gain much

  by being spared that day. He lived, both as a prisoner and a

  beggar, utterly despised, and miserably poor, for thirteen years,

  and then died in an old outhouse belonging to one of his former

  servants.

  This plot got rid of, and Sir Walter Raleigh safely shut up in the

  Tower, his Sowship held a great dispute with the Puritans on their

  presenting a petition to him, and had it all his own way - not so

  very wonderful, as he would talk continually, and would not hear

  anybody else - and filled the Bishops with admiration. It was

  comfortably settled that there was to be only one form of religion,

  and that all men were to think exactly alike. But, although this

  was arranged two centuries and a half ago, and although the

  arrangement was supported by much fining and imprisonment, I do not

  find that it is quite successful, even yet.

  His Sowship, having that uncommonly high opinion of himself as a

  king, had a very low opinion of Parliament as a power that

  audaciously wanted to control him. When he called his first

  Parliament after he had been king a year, he accordingly thought he

  would take pretty high ground with them, and told them that he

  commanded them 'as an absolute king.' The Parliament thought those

  strong words, and saw the necessity of upholding their authority.

  His Sowship had three children: Prince Henry, Prince Charles, and

  the Princess Elizabeth. It would have been well for one of these,

  and we shall too soon see which, if he had learnt a little wisdom

  concerning Parliaments from his father's obstinacy.

  Now, the people still labouring under their old dread of the

  Catholic religion, this Parliament revived and strengthened the

  severe laws against it. And this so angered ROBERT CATESBY, a

  restless Catholic gentleman of an old family, that he formed one of

  the most desperate and terrible designs ever conceived in the mind

  of man; no less a scheme than the Gunpowder Plot.

  His object was, when the King, lords, and commons, should be

  assembled at the next opening of Parliament, to blow them up, one

  and all, with a great mine of gunpowder. The first person to whom

  he confided this horrible idea was THOMAS WINTER, a Worcestershire

  gentleman who had served in the army abroad, and had been secretly

  employed in Catholic projects. While Winter was yet undecided, and

  when he had gone over to the Netherlands, to learn from the Spanish

  Ambassador there whether there was any hope of Catholics being

  relieved through the intercession of the King of Spain with his

  Sowship, he found at Ostend a tall, dark, daring man, whom he had

  known when they were both soldiers abroad, and whose name was GUIDO

  - or GUY - FAWKES. Resolved to join the plot, he proposed it to

  this man, knowing him to be the man for any desperate deed, and

  they two came back to England together. Here, they admitted two

  other conspirators; THOMAS PERCY, related to the Earl of

  Northumberland, and JOHN WRIGHT, his brother-in-law. All these met

  together in a solitary house in the open fields which were then

  near Clement's Inn, now a closely blocked-up part of London; and

  when they had all taken a great oath of secrecy, Catesby told the

  rest what his plan was. They then went up-stairs into a garret,

  and received the Sacrament from FATHER GERARD, a Jesuit, who is

  said not to have known actually of the Gunpowder Plot, but who, I

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  think, must have had his suspicions that there was something

  desperate afoot.

  Percy was a Gentleman Pensioner, and as he had occasional duties to

  perform about the Court, then kept at Whitehall, there would be

  nothing suspicious in his living at Westminster. So, having looked

  well about him, and having found a house to let, the back of which

  joined the Parliament House, he hired it of a person named FERRIS,

  for the purpose of undermining the wall. Having got possession of

  this house, the conspirators hired another on the Lambeth side of

  the Thames, which they used as a storehouse for wood, gunpowder,

  and other combustible matters. These were to be removed at night

  (and afterwards were removed), bit by bit, to the house at

  Westminster; and, that there might be some trusty person to keep

  watch over the Lambeth stores, they admitted another conspirator,

  by name ROBERT KAY, a very poor Catholic gentleman.

  All these arrangements had been made some months, and it was a

  dark, wintry, December night, when the conspirators, who had been

  in the meantime dispersed to avoid observation, met in the house at

  Westminster, and began to dig. They had laid in a good stock of

  eatables, to avoid going in and out, and they dug and dug with

  great ardour. But, the wall being tremendously thick, and the work

  very severe, they took into their plot CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT, a

  younger brother of John Wright, that they might have a new pair of

  hands to help. And Christopher Wright fell to like a fresh man,

  and they dug and dug by night and by day, and Fawkes stood sentinel

  all the time. And if any man's heart seemed to fail him at all,

  Fawkes said, 'Gentlemen, we have abundance of powder and shot here,

  and there is no fear of our being taken alive, even if discovered.'

  The same Fawkes, who, in the capacity of sentinel, was always

  prowling about, soon picked up the intelligence that the King had

  prorogued the Parliament again, from the seventh of February, the

  day first fixed upon, until the third of October. When the

  conspirators knew this, they agreed to separate until after the

  Christmas holidays, and to take no notice of each other in the

  meanwhile, and never to write letters to one another on any

  account. So, the house in Westminster was shut up again, and I

  suppose the neighbours thought that those strange-looking men who

  lived there so gloomily, and went out so seldom, were gone away to

  have a merry Christmas somewhere.

  It was the beginning of February, sixteen hundred and five, when

  Catesby met his fellow-conspirators again at this Westminster

  house. He had now admitted three more; JOHN GRANT, a Warwickshire

  gentleman of a melancholy temper, who lived in a doleful house near

  Stratford-upon-Avon, with a frowning wall all round it, and a deep

  moat; ROBERT WINTER, eldest brother of Thomas; and Catesby's own

  servant, THOMAS BATES, who, Catesby thought, had had some suspicion

  of what his master was about. These three had all suffered more or

  less for their religion in Elizabeth's time. And now, they all

  began to dig again, and they dug and dug by night and by day.

  They found it dismal w
ork alone there, underground, with such a

  fearful secret on their minds, and so many murders before them.

  They were filled with wild fancies. Sometimes, they thought they

  heard a great bell tolling, deep down in the earth under the

  Parliament House; sometimes, they thought they heard low voices

  muttering about the Gunpowder Plot; once in the morning, they

  really did hear a great rumbling noise over their heads, as they

  dug and sweated in their mine. Every man stopped and looked aghast

  at his neighbour, wondering what had happened, when that bold

  prowler, Fawkes, who had been out to look, came in and told them

  that it was only a dealer in coals who had occupied a cellar under

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  the Parliament House, removing his stock in trade to some other

  place. Upon this, the conspirators, who with all their digging and

  digging had not yet dug through the tremendously thick wall,

  changed their plan; hired that cellar, which was directly under the

  House of Lords; put six-and-thirty barrels of gunpowder in it, and

  covered them over with fagots and coals. Then they all dispersed

  again till September, when the following new conspirators were

  admitted; SIR EDWARD BAYNHAM, of Gloucestershire; SIR EVERARD

  DIGBY, of Rutlandshire; AMBROSE ROOKWOOD, of Suffolk; FRANCIS

  TRESHAM, of Northamptonshire. Most of these were rich, and were to

  assist the plot, some with money and some with horses on which the

  conspirators were to ride through the country and rouse the

  Catholics after the Parliament should be blown into air.

  Parliament being again prorogued from the third of October to the

  fifth of November, and the conspirators being uneasy lest their

  design should have been found out, Thomas Winter said he would go

  up into the House of Lords on the day of the prorogation, and see

  how matters looked. Nothing could be better. The unconscious

  Commissioners were walking about and talking to one another, just

  over the six-and-thirty barrels of gunpowder. He came back and

  told the rest so, and they went on with their preparations. They

  hired a ship, and kept it ready in the Thames, in which Fawkes was

  to sail for Flanders after firing with a slow match the train that

  was to explode the powder. A number of Catholic gentlemen not in

  the secret, were invited, on pretence of a hunting party, to meet

  Sir Everard Digby at Dunchurch on the fatal day, that they might be

  ready to act together. And now all was ready.

  But, now, the great wickedness and danger which had been all along

  at the bottom of this wicked plot, began to show itself. As the

  fifth of November drew near, most of the conspirators, remembering

  that they had friends and relations who would be in the House of

  Lords that day, felt some natural relenting, and a wish to warn

  them to keep away. They were not much comforted by Catesby's

  declaring that in such a cause he would blow up his own son. LORD

  MOUNTEAGLE, Tresham's brother-in-law, was certain to be in the

  house; and when Tresham found that he could not prevail upon the

  rest to devise any means of sparing their friends, he wrote a

  mysterious letter to this lord and left it at his lodging in the

  dusk, urging him to keep away from the opening of Parliament,

  'since God and man had concurred to punish the wickedness of the

  times.' It contained the words 'that the Parliament should receive

  a terrible blow, and yet should not see who hurt them.' And it

  added, 'the danger is past, as soon as you have burnt the letter.'

  The ministers and courtiers made out that his Sowship, by a direct

  miracle from Heaven, found out what this letter meant. The truth

  is, that they were not long (as few men would be) in finding out

  for themselves; and it was decided to let the conspirators alone,

  until the very day before the opening of Parliament. That the

  conspirators had their fears, is certain; for, Tresham himself said

  before them all, that they were every one dead men; and, although

  even he did not take flight, there is reason to suppose that he had

  warned other persons besides Lord Mounteagle. However, they were

  all firm; and Fawkes, who was a man of iron, went down every day

  and night to keep watch in the cellar as usual. He was there about

  two in the afternoon of the fourth, when the Lord Chamberlain and

  Lord Mounteagle threw open the door and looked in. 'Who are you,

  friend?' said they. 'Why,' said Fawkes, 'I am Mr. Percy's servant,

  and am looking after his store of fuel here.' 'Your master has

  laid in a pretty good store,' they returned, and shut the door, and

  went away. Fawkes, upon this, posted off to the other conspirators

  to tell them all was quiet, and went back and shut himself up in

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  the dark, black cellar again, where he heard the bell go twelve

  o'clock and usher in the fifth of November. About two hours

  afterwards, he slowly opened the door, and came out to look about

  him, in his old prowling way. He was instantly seized and bound,

  by a party of soldiers under SIR THOMAS KNEVETT. He had a watch

  upon him, some touchwood, some tinder, some slow matches; and there

  was a dark lantern with a candle in it, lighted, behind the door.

  He had his boots and spurs on - to ride to the ship, I suppose -

  and it was well for the soldiers that they took him so suddenly.

  If they had left him but a moment's time to light a match, he

  certainly would have tossed it in among the powder, and blown up

  himself and them.

  They took him to the King's bed-chamber first of all, and there the

  King (causing him to be held very tight, and keeping a good way

  off), asked him how he could have the heart to intend to destroy so

  many innocent people? 'Because,' said Guy Fawkes, 'desperate

  diseases need desperate remedies.' To a little Scotch favourite,

  with a face like a terrier, who asked him (with no particular

  wisdom) why he had collected so much gunpowder, he replied, because

  he had meant to blow Scotchmen back to Scotland, and it would take

  a deal of powder to do that. Next day he was carried to the Tower,

  but would make no confession. Even after being horribly tortured,

  he confessed nothing that the Government did not already know;

  though he must have been in a fearful state - as his signature,

  still preserved, in contrast with his natural hand-writing before

  he was put upon the dreadful rack, most frightfully shows. Bates,

  a very different man, soon said the Jesuits had had to do with the

  plot, and probably, under the torture, would as readily have said

  anything. Tresham, taken and put in the Tower too, made

  confessions and unmade them, and died of an illness that was heavy

  upon him. Rookwood, who had stationed relays of his own horses all

  the way to Dunchurch, did not mount to escape until the middle of

  the day, when the news of the plot was all over London. On the

  road, he came up with the two Wrights, Catesby, and Percy; and they

  all g
alloped together into Northamptonshire. Thence to Dunchurch,

  where they found the proposed party assembled. Finding, however,

  that there had been a plot, and that it had been discovered, the

  party disappeared in the course of the night, and left them alone

  with Sir Everard Digby. Away they all rode again, through

  Warwickshire and Worcestershire, to a house called Holbeach, on the

  borders of Staffordshire. They tried to raise the Catholics on

  their way, but were indignantly driven off by them. All this time

  they were hotly pursued by the sheriff of Worcester, and a fast

  increasing concourse of riders. At last, resolving to defend

  themselves at Holbeach, they shut themselves up in the house, and

  put some wet powder before the fire to dry. But it blew up, and

  Catesby was singed and blackened, and almost killed, and some of

  the others were sadly hurt. Still, knowing that they must die,

  they resolved to die there, and with only their swords in their

  hands appeared at the windows to be shot at by the sheriff and his

  assistants. Catesby said to Thomas Winter, after Thomas had been

  hit in the right arm which dropped powerless by his side, 'Stand by

  me, Tom, and we will die together!' - which they did, being shot

  through the body by two bullets from one gun. John Wright, and

  Christopher Wright, and Percy, were also shot. Rookwood and Digby

  were taken: the former with a broken arm and a wound in his body

  too.

  It was the fifteenth of January, before the trial of Guy Fawkes,

  and such of the other conspirators as were left alive, came on.

  They were all found guilty, all hanged, drawn, and quartered:

  some, in St. Paul's Churchyard, on the top of Ludgate-hill; some,

  before the Parliament House. A Jesuit priest, named HENRY GARNET,

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  to whom the dreadful design was said to have been communicated, was

  taken and tried; and two of his servants, as well as a poor priest

  who was taken with him, were tortured without mercy. He himself

  was not tortured, but was surrounded in the Tower by tamperers and

  traitors, and so was made unfairly to convict himself out of his

  own mouth. He said, upon his trial, that he had done all he could

  to prevent the deed, and that he could not make public what had

  been told him in confession - though I am afraid he knew of the