The Fifth of November
Page 15
‘And even if it wasn’t about the Catholics.’
‘I expect he got a good fright, when he was questioned.’
‘I’m glad they let him go,’ said Margaret.
‘Perhaps they told him to clear out, and that’s why he went to the Low Countries.’
‘Did you find—either of the others?’ Dick asked.
‘No. I looked up the plays, though. There’s another discrepancy there. Othello was performed in the spring of 1605, but I can’t find any reference to a performance in August or September. You’re sure it was the summer?’
‘Certain. It was so hot.’
‘Guy did lodge with a Mrs. Herbert,’ Uncle Edward said casually, ‘and he left in a hurry because she suspected he was a Catholic’
‘Were any of the facts wrong in your dream?’ Dick asked pointedly. He was a little touchy on the subject.
‘Wright seems to have known the details of the plot before Guy was told. I couldn’t find any trace of Father Lambert. And, of course, there was a lot of detail I couldn’t verify.’
‘Uncle Edward—do you think—did we really—?’
Uncle Edward got up.
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘There’s a lot we can’t understand. No,’ he added, almost crossly, ‘I don’t know.’
Margaret went over to the window. The garden, so oddly lit by the fireworks, looked back at her with its ordinary winter appearance.
‘Please to remember
The fifth of November.’
she quoted, and turned to the others. ‘We’re not likely to forget it.’
Appendix A
The Gunpowder Plot
1604
Early April. Thomas Winter goes over to Flanders, chiefly to fetch Guy Fawkes. Hears good accounts of him from Captain Owen and Sir William Stanley. At Dunkirk, explains to Guy Fawkes that ‘there was a plan to do something in England, if peace with Spain brought no improvement (to Catholics). But that nothing was fixed.’
Late April. They discussed the situation while waiting at Gravelines for a wind, then crossed together to Greenwich. When near they ‘took a pair of oars, and so came up to London’.
They went to Catesby at his lodging at Lambeth.
May 10th. Catesby, T. Winter, J. Wright, Guy Fawkes discuss the state of the Catholics. Percy joins them and asks if there is always to be nothing but talk.
They arrange another meeting, behind St. Clement’s.
A few days later, the same men meet.
All take oath of secrecy upon a Primer. They hear Mass in the next room, and receive the Sacrament from Father Gerard.
Then Catesby tells the plan to Percy, while Winter and Wright tell Guy Fawkes. Both approve.
May. Percy leases a house next the Parliament House, from Mr. Wynniard.
Guy Fawkes becomes ‘Johnson’, Percy’s servant, and has the keys of the house.
Parliament is adjourned until 7th February, 1605.
The conspirators disperse into the country.
June. Keyes is sworn in, and is entrusted with the charge of the powder at a house at Lambeth.
Early October. Guy Fawkes and Winter meet Catesby at Moorcroft. They agree that it is time to get things ready, so
Next day, Guy Fawkes goes to London.
Next day, Guy Fawkes tells Winter the Scottish Lords are using the house (the house next door, over the vault?) for a conference, so They disperse again.
December 11th. Catesby, Percy, J. Wright, Winter, Guy Fawkes start work on the mine. They are bothered by water coming in. Guy Fawkes is the only one who appears outside. He acts as porter and sentinel; giving warning when anyone comes near (because of the noise).
Guy Fawkes hears that Parliament is again adjourned until October 3rd.
December 24th. They break off work and discussions until—
1605
End of January, when John Grant and Robert Winter are sworn in, and the work is begun again.
February 2nd (about). Powder is brought from Lambeth to the house in a boat.
They mine for another fortnight. The work is very hard. Christopher Wright is called in.
March. Those mining are startled by rumbling overhead. Guy Fawkes inquires, and finds that Mrs. Skinner, coal-merchant, has sold her stock. (She marries Mr. Bright soon after.)
Guy Fawkes hires the cellar in Percy’s name, for fuel and coal. (It belongs to Wynniard, and is sub-let by Skinner. Wynniard is seriously ill, and does all business through his wife.) The conspirators close the entrance to the mine, and knock a door through to the cellar.
By May, barrels of gunpowder and fuel are moved from house to cellar. Guy Fawkes has the cellar stocked with billets and faggots, covering the powder, so that they can safely leave the cellar unguarded. Mr. Gibbins, porter, husband of the ‘char’ who lives in the house above the vault, seems to have carted the fuel. He and his wife are supposed to have known nothing of the plot. Money is running short, so the conspirators decide to leave it to Catesby to call in others.
May. Guy Fawkes, on Catesby’s orders, goes to the Low Countries to be out of sight. He leaves the key of the house to Percy.
The conspirators disperse until September.
June or July. Sir Everard Digby is called in. He is given the job of heading the rebellion in the midlands.
August (end of). Guy Fawkes returns. He takes a lodging ‘at one Mrs. Herbert’s house, a widow that dwells on the backside of St. Clement’s Church, and when he found that his landlady suspected him of associating with Catholics, he hurriedly left’.
Mrs. Herbert said he was ‘always in good clothes, and full of money’.
Early September. Guy Fawkes again has the key. Guy Fawkes and Winter buy new powder, ‘suspecting the first to be dank’. They put it in position.
Late September. The conspirators meet and disperse, because Parliament has been prorogued until November 5th.
By middle October, their plans are definitely settled.
October 18th. Catesby and Guy Fawkes come to White Webbes, Enfield Chace, and T. Winter joins them. Tresham visits White Webbes. He is very dejected and anxious. He asks to be allowed to warn Lord Mounteagle and Lord Stourton. The conspirators seem to have regretted admitting him to the conspiracy. They are afraid he will give them away, but do not dare detain him, for fear he will be missed and searched for.
Tresham tries to persuade the others to fly to Flanders and to leave Guy Fawkes to carry out the plot. He says he cannot provide the balance of the money he promised, until after the 5th.
October 26th (Saturday). Lord Mounteagle, at Hoxton, receives the anonymous letter. He takes it to Cecil, who shows it to the Privy Council, and a day or two later (?November 2nd) to the king.
October 27th (Sunday). Ward tells Winter of the letter.
Monday, 28th. Winter tells Catesby, at Enfield. Catesby thinks Cecil will not guess the details, as no names were mentioned in the letter. Winter implores him to fly, but is overruled.
Without telling him of the letter, Catesby sends Guy Fawkes to London to see that the cellar is undisturbed.
October 30th. Guy Fawkes goes to London. He finds everything all right, and returns. The others, much relieved, tell him of the letter. Guy Fawkes says he would have gone anyhow.
Thursday, 31st. Guy Fawkes and T. Winter go to London.
Guy Fawkes visits the cellar every day.
Friday, November 1st. Catesby, Tresham, and Winter meet at Barnet, and discuss who sent the letter.
Tresham says it was not he.
Saturday, 2nd. Winter meets Tresham at Lincoln’s Inn. Tresham is very gloomy.
Sunday, November 3rd. Ward sends warning that the letter has been taken to the king. Catesby and Winter meet Tresham behind St. Clement’s. Tresham denounces the plot and implores them to fly. Winter is scared stiff; and even Catesby is shaken. They wait for Percy’s opinion. He urges them to stick it out.
Monday, 4th. Catesby flees from London, but to join Digby. Percy goes to Sion, Northumberla
nd’s house.
Early afternoon. Guy Fawkes is surprised in the cellar by Lord Mounteagle and the Earl of Suffolk (Lord Chamberlain). They ask whom the fuel belongs to. He says, to his master. They leave without investigation. Guy Fawkes fears the worst, but still hopes the plot is not discovered. He goes out to warn Percy, and returns.
Just before midnight Sir Thomas Knivet and a body of men capture Fawkes just outside the house, and find the gunpowder.
‘When Fawkes saw his treason discovered, he instantly confessed his own guiltiness saying, if he had been within the house when they first laid hands upon him, he would have blown them up, himself and all.’
Guy Fawkes is bound and guarded by the soldiers, while Sir Thomas goes to the palace with the news.
November 5th, 4 a.m. Guy Fawkes is taken before James and the Council in the king’s bedchamber. Questioned by everyone at once, he does not show fear, and gives back answers to those who he considers have no power to question him. He says he was acting without accomplices.
Early morning. Guy Fawkes is taken to the Tower: first to a cell in the White Tower, later to ‘Little Ease’, next to the Torture Chamber.
5 a.m. C. Wright warns Winter that the game is up, then warns Percy. They ride off. Keyes rides oif. Rokewood rides off. He has relays waiting between London and Dunchurch.
They all meet at Dunchurch, where Sir Everard Digby is waiting.
The London streets are soon filled with people.
Train-bands are called out, and kept out all Wednesday, too.
Rumour says that a general rising of Catholics is imminent.
The Spanish ambassador’s house is mobbed.
November 6th. Guy Fawkes, examined, refuses to name his friends. He explains: ‘The giving warning to one overthrew us all.’
Put to the torture. The ‘gentler’ torments first.
The conspirators are trying in vain to raise rebellion in the midlands.
November 7th. A Royal Proclamation is issued in London, denouncing the revolt, and clearly stating that no Catholic power on the Continent is implicated. Percy is stated to be the leader.
The conspirators march to Holbeach. It is rainy.
A letter is found on Guy Fawkes. He admits his name, and that he comes from York. After torture, he confesses that the plot originated a year and a half ago, and that there were five plotters only to start with. He gives away nothing of importance. Sir William Waad writes that at night he found Guy Fawkes in pliant mood, and ready to reveal all tomorrow.
November 8th. Morning. Waad says Guy Fawkes ‘hath changed his mind, and is sullen and obstinate.’
Afternoon. Guy Fawkes confirms his previous story, and says T. Winter persuaded him to join plot. He gives the names (possibly not till the 9th) of Percy, Digby, Tresham, Keyes, Grant, Rokewood, and the Wrights.
(The news from Holbeach reached London on the 9th, so that, if Guy Fawkes did not tell the names till then, he was only giving away what was known already. Everyone who is pro-Guy says that was so. The anti-Guys say he gave the names away under torture. The Government denies that he was tortured, and says that he gave his companions away at threat of torture.
Guy was certainly tortured, but probably not after the ioth. MS. Florence says: ‘He was first suspended in the air by his thumbs, and then placed on the rack, and as he still refused to name his accomplices he was stretched naked on a heated stone.’
He seems to have been on the rack on one occasion for three hours. (On another, for half an hour.)
November 8th, morning. Holbeach, Worcs. As the conspirators are drying some damp gunpowder, it blows up, and scorches the faces of Catesby and Rokewood. All are demoralized. They think heaven is against them. R. Winter said he has dreamt of it before. Several desert.
11 a.m. The Sheriff of Worcester surrounds the house, and storms the garrison. Catesby and the Wrights die fighting. Percy dies of wounds later. A. Rokewood and T. Winter are badly wounded. (They recovered in the Tower.) Grant and Digby are taken. All are put in the Tower.
November 9th. Guy Fawkes promises to tell more if he may disclose it to Salisbury (Cecil) in person. He will not have it written. There is no record of Cecil having visited him.
Guy Fawkes discloses many more details of the progress of the plot.
Keyes is taken in Warwickshire, and brought to the Tower.
November 12th. Bates is captured in Staffs., and taken to the Tower. Tresham (in London) is taken to the Tower. Tresham, without torture, says that he had many interviews with Catesby, and Fathers Garnet, Greenway, and Gerard. He will not say what occurred. T. Winter is examined for the first time.
November 13th. Tresham says Catesby revealed the plot to him four weeks ago, but that he did all he could to dissuade them from going on with it.
November 16th. Guy Fawkes explains how Catesby tried to prevent the Catholic peers from attending, without telling of the Plot. He gives more details.
November 19th. Sir E. Digby makes no effort to conceal anything. He mixes in a few lines to save his skin. (They were all caught, so there was no point in concealing anything.)
November 29th. Tresham is again examined. He mentions Mounteagle. Soon after, he becomes very ill.
December 8th. It is discovered that Guy Fawkes’s mother is alive.
December 10th. Tresham swears ‘upon his salvation’ that he has lied before, and that he has not seen Father Garnet for sixteen years. (This is easily proved false.) Tresham dies soon after.
1606
January 9th. R. Winter is taken at Hagley, Worcs., and brought to the Tower.
During January, Guy Fawkes is several times examined. At various times A. Rokewood, Grant, Keyes, Bates and R. Winter are also examined. There is a story, probably true, that R. Winter and Guy Fawkes were in cells adjoining, and talked through a hole in the wall. An official eavesdropper was listening, but does not seem to have heard much.
(The same trick was used with great success on Fathers Garnet and Oldcastle, a few months later.)
January 27th. The eight conspirators are tried at Westminster Hall: Guy Fawkes, T. Winter, R. Winter, J. Grant, A. Rokewood, Bates, Keyes, and Sir E. Digby.
Counsel for the Crown are Sir Edward Philips, and Sir Edward Coke. The prisoners are not represented by counsel. All plead ‘Not guilty’ because the indictment is framed to include the Jesuit Fathers.
There is a long, untruthful, violent speech from Coke.
All the examinations, confessions, declarations are read out.
The conspirators are allowed to speak. Most of them ‘crave mercy’.
Sir Edward Digby is separately tried and sentenced immediately after the others. He pleads ‘Guilty’. Bates … ‘being but a serving-man, showed more servile fear both now and at his death than any of them all’.
January 30th. Thursday. Sir E. Digby, R. Winter, John Grant, and Thomas Bates are executed.
January 31st. Thomas Winter, (John?) Winter, Ambrose Rokewood, Robert Keyes, and Guy Fawkes are executed. They were ‘drawn from the Tower, by way of the Strand to the old Palace of Westminster over against the Parliament House.’
Appendix B
A LIST OF QUESTIONS DRAWN UP BY THE KING TO BE PUT TO JOHNSON (FAWKES). 6TH NOV., 1605
1. As to what he is? for I can never hear yet of any man that knows him.
2. Where was he born? and when?
3. What were the names of his parents?
4. What is his age?
5. Where hath he lived?
6. How hath he lived? and by what trade?
7. How he received the wounds in his breast?
8. If he was ever in service with any other before Percy?
9. How came he in Percy’s service; and when?
10. When was this house (in Westminster) hired by Percy?
11. How soon after getting it, did he begin his devilish practices?
12. Where did he learn to speak French?
13. What gentlewoman’s letter was it, that was found upon him?
<
br /> 14. Why does she in it call him by another name?
15. If he ever was a priest?
16. Where was he converted, and by whom?
The original is written in broad Scots.
Appendix C
Among the Authorities Consulted Are:
Domestic State Papers. James I. (Record Office.)
Additional MSS. 6178. (British Museum.)
State Trials, volume ii. Edited by Cobbett.
Henslowe’s Diary. Edited by Greg.
Elizabethan Stage, volume ii. E. K. Chambers.
Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. Father John Gerard.
The Condition of Catholics under James I. Edited by J. Morris.
The Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers. J. Morris.
A Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot. David Jardine.
What the Gunpowder Plot Was. S. R. Gardiner.
A History of the Gunpowder Plot. Philip Sidney.
Great Yorkshiremen. G. C. Heseltine.
Dictionary of National Biography.
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