neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee But in the second place knowing that Prayers without endeavours and means are like Rachel beautiful but barren that She might not be taken unprovided She prepared with all diligence as strong a Fleet as She could and all things necessary for War and She that in discerning mens parts and abilities was of a most sharp judgment and ever most happy having the free choice in her self and not by the commendations of others assigned to every office by name the best and fittest men The charge of her Navy She committed to Charles Howard of Effingham Lord Admiral of England of whose skill She had had former experience and whom She knew both by his Moderation and Nobility to be wary in providence valiant industrious and of great authority among the Seamen and well beloved of them Her Vice-Admiral She made the famous Sir Francis Drake and these She sent to the West parts of England and for the Guard of the narrow Seas She appointed Henry Lord Seimore second Son to the Duke of Somerset whom She commanded also to lie upon the Coasts of the Low-Countries with forty Ships to watch that the Prince of Parma might not come forth with his Forces By Land She commanded the General Forces of the Realm to be mustered trained and put in readiness in their special Shires for the defence of the whole which accordingly was done and whereof the Lord Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester was appointed Lieutenant twenty thousand whereof were disposed along our South-Coast for the guard thereof besides which She had two Armies one of which consisting of a thousand Horse and twenty two thousand Foot was encamped at Tilbury near the Thames mouth whither the Enemy fully intended to come The other which was led by the Lord Hunsdon consisted of thirty four thousand Foot and two thousand Horse which were to be the Guard of the Queens person Her self in courage far surmounting her Sex as another Zenobia or rather Deborah led forth the Lords Host against this great Sisera and her Souldiers valiant and skilful both for courage and quick dispatch might well be compared to those Gadites that came to aid David whose faces were like the faces of Lions and were compared to the Roes in the Mountains for swiftness Arthur Lord Grey Sir Francis Knolles Sir John Knorris Sir Richard Bingham and Sir Roger Williams all gallant men and brave Souldiers were appointed to consult about managing the Land Service These advised that all the commodious landing places for the Enemy as well from Spain as from the Low-Countries should be manned and fortified as Milford Haven Falmouth Plimmouth Portland the Isle of Weight Portsmouth the open Coast of Kent commonly called the Downs the Thames mouth Harwich Yarmouth Hull c. and that the Trained Bands throughout the Coast Shires should meet upon a signal given to defend the said places and do their best to prohibit the Enemies landing But in case he should land that then they should leave all the Country round about wast that so they might find nothing for food but what from their Ships they should carry upon their shoulders and that they should hold the Enemies busied both night and day with continual Alarms but not to hazard a Battel till more Commanders with their Companies were come together Some suggested also to the Queen that the Spaniards abroad were not so much to be feared as the Papists at home for that the Spaniards would not attempt the Invasion of England but upon confidence of aid from them She thereupon committed some of them to Prison at Wisbeach in the Fenns by her Letters also She directed Sir William Fitz-Williams Lord Deputy of Ireland what he should do The King of Scots She put in mind to beware of the Papists and Spanish Factions By her frequent Letters She wrote to the States of the Vnited Provinces not to be deficient in assisting her what they could But amongst these preparations for War on both sides Philip King of Spain to cast a mist over her Majesties eyes and to rock her into a sleep of security importuned by all means the Realms unto peace imploying the Prince of Parma to be his instrument therein who dealt earnestly by Letters with the help of Sir James Crofts a privy Counsellor and a man much addicted to peace as also by Andrew Van Loey a Netherlander that a Treaty of Peace might be entred upon affirming that he had Warrant thereunto from the King of Spain Our Queen measuring other Princes by her own guileless heart gave ear to this deceitful lullaby little suspecting that a deadly Snake could be hid in so fair a Garden yet resolved to treat of Peace with her Sword in her hand neither was the Prince of Parma against her so doing In the month therefore of February Commissioners were sent into Flanders Henry Earl of Darby William Brook Lord Cobham Sir James Crofts Valentine Dale and John Rogers Doctors of the Law who arriving there were received in the Prince of Parma's name with all courtesy who thereupon sent away Dale presently to him to know where the place of meeting should be and to see his Commission from the King of Spain the place he appointed to be near Ostend the Town it self being then in the English hands and as for his Commission he promised it should be produced at their meeting Only he wished them to hasten the matter lest any thing should happen in the interim to interrupt the Treaty and one Richardot which stood by him said more openly That he knew not what in the mean time might be done against England Which being reported to the Queen She sent Rogers to the Prince to know whether there was any design for the Invading of England as he and Richardot by their words seemed to imply The Prince answered that he had never any thought for the Invading England when he wished the Treaty to be hastened and was angry with Richardot who denied that any such words had fallen from him Commissioners for the King of Spain were Maximilian Earl of Aremberg Governor of Antwerp Richardot President of Artois with some other Civilians These stayed at Bruges and for all their pretended haste much time was cunningly spun out about the place of their meeting which should have the Precedency and what hostages should be given for security of the Commissioners yet at length the Spaniards yielded to the English Precedency both in going and sitting and the place was in Tents near unto Ostend The demands for the Queen were that there might be a surcease of Arms with a present and undelayed Truce She mitrusting the Spanish preparations at Sea The sending away of foreign Souldiers out of the Low-Countries for Englands security A restitution of such sums of money as the Queen had lent to the States and which the King had promised to restore That the Netherlanders might enjoy their ancient liberties and
the four Gallions of Portugal but one of the ninety one Callions and great Hulks from divers Provinces only thirty three returned fifty eight being lost In brief they lost in this Voyage eighty one Vessels thirteen thousand five hundred and odd Souldiers Prisoners taken in England Ireland and the Low-Countries were above two thousand Amongst those in England Don Pedro de Valdez Don Vasques de Silva and Don Alonzo de Saies and others were kept for their ransome In Ireland Don Alonzo de Luzon Roderigo de Lasse and others of great account In Zeland was Don Diego Piementelli To be brief there was no famous or noble family in all Spain which in this expedition lost not a Son Brother or Kinsman And thus this Armado which had been so many years in preparing and rigging with such vast expence was in one month many times assaulted and at length wholly defeated with the slaughter of so many of her men not one hundred of the English being lacking nor one small Ship of theirs taken or lost save only that of Cocks and having traversed round about all Britain by Scotland the Orcades and Ireland most grievously tossed and very much distressed and wasted by stormes wracks and all kinds of misery at length came lamely home with perpetual dishonour whereupon Medals were stamped in memory thereof A Fleet flying with full Sailes with this inscription Venit vidit fugit It came it saw it fled Others in honour of our Queen with flaming Ships and a Fleet in a great confusion and this Motto Dux foemina facti A Woman was Conductor of the fact In the aforementioned wracks above seven hundred Souldiers and Sailors were cast on land in Scotland who upon the intercession of the Prince of Parma to the King of Scots and by the permission of Queen Elizabeth were after a years time sent over into the Low-Countries But more unmercifully were those miserable wretches dealt withal whose hap was to be driven by tempest into Ireland Some of them being slain by the wild Irish their old friends and others of them being put to death by the command of the Lord Deputy For he fearing lest they might join with the Irish to disturb the peace of the Nation commanded Bingham Governour of Connaught to destroy them but he refusing to deal so rigorously with those that had yielded themselves He sent Fowle Deputy-Marshal who drew them out of their lurking holes and cut off the heads of above two hundred of them which fact the Queen from her heart condemned and abhorred as a fact of too great cruelty The remainder of them being terrified herewith sick and starven as they were committed themselves to Sea in their shattered Vessels and were many of them swallowed up by the Waves The Spaniards charged the whole fault of their overthrow upon the Prince of Parma as if in favour to our Queen he had wilfully and artificially delayed his coming to them But this was but an invention and pretention given out by them partly upon a Spanish Envy against that Prince he being an Italian and his Son a Competitor to the Kingdom of Portugal But chiefly to save the scorn and monstrous disreputation which they and their Nation received by the success of that enterprise Therefore their colours and excuses forsooth were That their General by Sea had a limited Commission not to fight till the Land Forces were come in to them and that the Prince of Parma had particular reaches and ends of his own to cross the designe But it was both a strange Commission and a strange Obedience to a Commission for men in the midst of their own blood and being so furiously assailed to hold their hands contrary to the Laws of Nature and necessity And as for the Prince of Parma he was reasonably well tempted to be true to that enterprise by no less promise than to be made a Feudatory or Beneficiary King of England under the Seignory in chief of the Pope and the protection of the King of Spain Besides it appeared that the Prince of Parma held his place long after of the Government of the Netherlands in the favour and trust of the King of Spain and by the great imployments and services that he performed in France It is also manifest that this Prince did his best to come down and put to Sea The truth was that the Spanish Navy upon those proofs of Fight which they had with the English finding how much hurt they received and how little hurt they did by reason of the activity and low building of our Ships and skill of Seamen and being also commanded by a General of small courage and experience and having lost at first two of their bravest Commanders at Sea Pedro de Valdez and Michael de Oquendo durst not put it to a Battel at Sea but set up their rest wholly upon the Land enterprise On the other side the transportation of the Land Forces failed in the very foundation For whereas the Council of Spain made full account that their Navy should be Master of the Sea and therefore able to guard and protect the Vessels of Transportation When it fell out to the contrary that the great Navy was distressed and had enough to do to save it self and that their Land Forces were impounded by the Hollanders Things I say being in this state it came to pass that the Prince of Parma must have flown if he would have come into England for he could get neither Bark nor Mariner to put to Sea Yet certain it is that the Prince looked for the coming back of the Armado even at that time when they were wandring and making their perambulation upon the Northern Seas Queen Elizabeth lying one night in her Army at Tilbury the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh came thither and delivered to the Earl of Leicester the Examination of Don Pedro who was taken and brought into England by Sir Francis Drake which examination the Earl delivered unto me saith Dr Sharp mine Author that I might publish it to the Army in my next Sermon The sum of it was this Don Pedro being asked by some of the Lords of the Privy Council what was the intent of their coming stoutly answered the Lords what but to subdue your Nation and to root it out Good said the Lords what then meant you to do with the Catholicks we meant said he to have sent them good men directly to Heaven as all you that are Hereticks to Hell Yea but said the Lords what meant you to do with your whips of Cord and Wier whereof you have such great store in your Ships what said he we meant to whip you Hereticks to Death that have assisted my Masters Rebels and done such dishonour to our Catholick King and People Yea but what would you have done said they with their young Children They said he which were above seven years old should have gone the same way that their Fathers went the rest should have lived
digging Tools betook themselves to their Weapons having sufficient shot and Powder in the House and fully resolving rather to die in the place than to yield or be taken The cause of this their fear was a noise that they heard in a room under the Parliament House under which they meant to have Mined which was directly under the Chair of State but now all on a sudden they were at a stand and their Countenances cast each upon other as doubtful what would be the Issue of their enterprize Fawkes scouted out to see what he could discover abroad and finding all safe and free from suspicion he returned and told them that the noise was only occasioned by the removal of Coals that were now upon Sale and that the Cellar was to be let which would be more commodious for their purpose and also would save their labour for the Mine Hereupon Thomas Percy under pretence of Stowage for his Winter provision and Coals went and hired the Cellar which done they began a new Conference wherein Catesby found the weight of the whole work too heavy for himself alone to support for besides the maintenance of so many persons and the several Houses for the several uses hired and paid for by him the Gunpowder and other Provisions would rise to a very great sum and indeed too much for one mans Purse He desired therefore that himself Percy and one more might call in such persons as they thought fit to help to maintain the charge alledging that they knew men of worth and wealth that would willingly assist but were not willing that their names should be known to the rest This request as necessary was approved and therefore ceasing to dig any further in the Vault knowing that the Cellar would be fitter for their purpose they removed into it twenty Barrels of Gunpowder which they covered with a thousand Billets and five hundred Faggots so that now their lodging rooms were cleared of all suspicious provision and might be freely entered into without danger of discovery But the Parliament being again Prorogued to the fifth of November following these persons thought sit that for a while they should again disperse themselves all things being already in so good a forwardness and that Guy Fawkes should go over to acquaint Sir William Stanley and Master Hugh Owen with these their proceedings yet so as the Oath of secresie should be first taken by them For their design was to have Sir Stanley's presence so soon as the fatal blow should be given to be a Leader to their intended stratagems whereof as they thought they should have great need and that Owen should remain where he was to hold correspondency with Foreign Princes to allay the odiousness of the fact and to impute the Treason to the discontented Puritanes Fawkes coming into Flanders found Owen unto whom after the Oath he declared the Plot which he very well approved of but Sir William Stanley being now in Spain Owen said that he would hardly be drawn into the business having suits at this time in the English Court yet he promised to ingage him all he could and to send him into England with the first so soon as their Plot had taken effect Upon this Fawkes to avoid further suspicion kept still in Flanders all the beginning of September and then returning received the Keyes of the Cellar and laid in more Powder Billets and Faggots which done he retired into the Country and there kept till the end of October In the mean time Catesby and Percy meeting at the Bath it was there concluded that because their number was but few Catesby himself should have power to call in whom he would to assist their design by which Authority he took in S ir Everard Digby of Rutlandshire and Francis Tresham Esquire of Northamptonshire both of them of sufficient state and wealth For Sir Everard offered fifteen hundred pounds to forward the action and Tresham two thousand But Percy disdaining that any should out-run him in evil promised four thousand pounds out of the Earl of Northumberlands Rents and ten swift Horses to be used when the blow was past Against which time to provide ammunition Catesby also took in Ambrose Rookwood and John Grant two Recusant Gentlemen and without doubt others were acquainted also with it had these two grand Electors been apprehended alive whose own tongues only could have given an account of it The business being thus forwarded abroad by their complices they at home were no less active For Percy Winter and Fawkes had stored this Cellar with thirty six Barrels of Gunpowder and instead of shot had laid upon them Bars of Iron logs of Timber massie Stones Iron Crowes Pick-Axes and all their working Tools and to cover all great store of Billets and Faggots so that nothing was wanting against that great and terrible day Neither were the Priests and Jesuits slack on their parts who usually concluded their Masses with Prayers for the good success of their expected hopes about which Garnet made these Verses Gentem aufer perfidam credentium de finibus Vt Christo laudes debitas persolvamus alacriter And others thus Prosper Lord their pains that labour in thy cause day and night Let Heresie vanish away like smoke Let their memory perish with a crack like the ruine and fall of a broken house Upon Thursday in the Evening ten days before the Parliament was to begin a Letter directed to the Lord Monteagle was delivered by an unknown person to his footman in the street with a strait charge to give it into his Lords own hands which accordingly he did The Letter had neither date nor subscription and was somewhat unlegible so that the Nobleman called for one of his servants to assist him in reading it the strange contents whereof much perplexed him he not knowing whether it was writ as a Pasquil to scare him from attendance at the Parliament or as matter of consequence and advice from some friend Howsoever though it were now Supper-time and the night very dark yet to shew his loyalty to his Sovereign he immediately repaired to Whitehall and imparted the Letter to the Earl of Salisbury then principal Secretary who reading the Letter and hearing how it came to the Lord Monteagles hands highly commended his Prudence and Loyalty for discovering it telling him plainly that whatsoever might be the event yet it put him in mind of divers Advertisements wherewithal he had acquainted both the King and his Council of some great business which the Papists were in hand with both at home and abroad against this Parliament pretending a Petition to the King and Parliament for a toleration of their Religion but withal giving out that it should be delivered in such an order and so well backed that the King should be loth to refuse their request Then did the Earl of Salisbury presently acquaint the Lord Chamberlain therewith who deemed the matter not a little to concern himself his Office
requiring him to oversee all the places to which his Majesty was to repair Hereupon these two Counsellors shewed the Letter to the Earls of Worcester and Northampton and all concluded how slight soever the contents seemed to appear to acquaint the King himself with the same which accordingly was done by the Earl of Salisbury who upon Friday in the Afternoon being All-Saints day taking the King into the Gallery at White-hall communicated the Letter to him which was as followeth My Lord OVT of the love I bear to some of your friends I have a care of your preservation Therefore I would advise you as you tender your life to devise some excuse to shift off your attendance at this Parliament For God and Man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this time And think not slightly of this advertisement but retire your self into your Country where you may expect the event in safety For though there be no appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurts them This counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you good and can do you no harm For the danger is past so soon as you have burnt the Letter and I hope God will give you the Grace to make a good use of it to whose holy protection I commend you His Majesty after reading this Letter pausing a while and then reading it again delivered his judgment that the stile of it was too quick and pithy to be a Libel proceeding from the superfluities of an idle brain and by these words That they should receive a terrible blow at this Parliament and yet not see who hurt them he presently apprehended that a sudden danger by a blast of Gunpowder was intended by some base Villain in a Corner though no insurrection rebellion or desperate attempt appeared But the Earl of Salisbury perceiving the King to apprehend it deeplier than he expected told his Majesty that he judged by one sentence in it that it was written either by a Fool or a Mad-man For said he If the danger be past as soon as you have burnt the Letter then the warning is to little purpose when the burning of the Letter may prevent the danger But the King on the contrary considering the former sentence That they should receive a terrible blow at this Parliament and yet should not see who hurt them joining it with this other sentence did thereupon conclude that the danger mentioned should be very sudden by some blast of Gun-Powder interpreting as soon for as quickly and therefore wished that the rooms under the Parliament-House should be thoroughly searched before Himself or Peers should sit therein Hereupon it was concluded that the Lord Chamberlain according to his Office should view all the rooms above and below but yet to prevent idle rumors and to let things ripen further it was resolved that this search should be deferred till Munday the day immediately before the Parliament and that then it should be done with a seeming slight eye to avoid suspect According to this conclusion the Earl of Suffolk Lord Chamberlain upon Munday in the Afternoon accompanied with the Lord Monteagle repaired into those under rooms and finding the Cellar so fully stored with Wood and Coals demanded of Fawkes the counterfeit Johnson who stood there attending as a servant of small repute Who owed the place He answered that the Lodgings belonged to Mr Thomas Percy and the Cellar also to lay in his Winter-provision himself being the Keeper of it and Mr Percies Servant whereunto the Earl as void of any suspicion told him that his Master was well provided against Winter blasts But when they were come forth the Lord Monteagle told him that he did much suspect Percy to be the Inditer of the Letter knowing his affection in Religion and the friendship betwixt them professed so that his heart gave him as he said when he heard Percy named that his hand was in the act The Lord Chamberlain returning related to the King and Council what he had seen and the suspicion that the Lord Monteagle had of Percy and himself of Johnson his man all which increased his Majesties jealousie so that he insisted that a narrower search should be made and the Billets and Coals turned up to the bottom of the same mind also were all the Privy-Counsellors then present but for the manner how the search was to be made they agreed not among themselves For on the one part they were very solicitous for the Kings safety concluding that there could not be too much caution used for preventing his danger and yet on the other part they were all extreme loth in case this Letter should prove nothing but the evaporation of some idle brain that a too curious search should be made lest if nothing were found it should turn to the great scandal of the King and State as being so suspicious upon every light and frivolous toy Besides it would lay an ill-favoured imputation upon the Earl of Northumberland one of his Majesties greatest Subjects and Counsellors This Thomas Percy being his Kinsman and intimate Friend Yet at last the search was concluded to be made but under colour of searching for certain Hangings belonging to the House which were missing and conveyed away Sir Thomas Knevet a Gentleman of his Majesties Privy-Chamber and a Justice of Peace in Westminster was imployed herein who about midnight before the Parliament was to begin went to the place with a small but trusty number of persons and at the door of the entrance to the Cellar finding one who was Guy Fawkes at so unseasonable an hour Cloked and Booted he apprehended him and ransacking the Billets he found the Serpents Nest stored with thirty six Barrels of Powder and then searching the Villain he found about him a dark Lanthorn three Matches and other instruments for blowing up the Powder And Fawkes being no whit daunted instantly confessed his guiltiness and was so far from repentance as he vowed that had he been within the House as indeed he was but immediately come forth from his work he would certainly have blown up the House with himself and them all and being brought before the Council he lamented nothing so much as because the deed was not done saying that the Devil and not God was the discoverer of it And indeed when this Prisoner was first brought into Whitehall in respect of the strangeness of the thing no man was restrained from seeing and speaking with him and not long after the Lords of the Council examined him But he put on such a Romane resolution that both to the Council and to all others that spake to him that day he seemed fixed and settled in his resolution of concealing his complices and notwithstanding the horror of the fact the guiltiness of his Conscience his sudden surprize the terror which should have been stricken into him by coming into the presence of
past the Syllies and thence also were forced by the Tempest to return into their former Harbour to refresh their Ships and Companies only some of their Scouts at Sea descried some of the Spanish Ships which likewise had been dispersed with the storm but before the English could come near them the wind veering about carryed them back to the Groine where the rest of their Fleet lay in Harbour Intelligence being brought that the Spaniards were in want their great Ships dispersed and the rest sorely shaken with the storm and their men dying by multitudes of the Pestilence the Lord Admiral Howard intended with the first Northerly wind to take advantage which coming about upon the eighth of July he lanched forth and bore his Sails almost within the sight of Spain purposing to surprise their weather-beaten Ships and to fight them upon their own Coast. But then the wind suddenly changing into the South and he wisely foreseeing that the Enemy might pass by without his discovery that the Seas might be stormy or his Fleet wind-bound and that whilst he thus lay abroad his service might be more necessary at home and that his work was to defend the Coasts of England he therefore presently returned and Anchored his Fleet in the Haven at Plimouth suffering his men to refresh themselves upon the Land At the same time there came more confident advertisement though false not only to the Lord Admiral but to the Court that the Spanish Fleet could not possibly come forth again that year upon which reports a dangerous matter in State affairs so confident was our Queen that She sent for four of her biggest Royal Ships to be brought back to Chattam But the Lord Admiral suspecting the worst by a mild and moderate answer retarded it desiring that nothing might be lightly believed in so weighty a matter and that he might retain them though at his own charge Wherein indeed a special providence of God did appear for just at that time news was brought to the Lord Admiral by one Captain Thomas Flemming that the Spanish Fleet was entred into the British Seas commonly called the Channel and was seen near unto the Lizard-point which came thus to pass The Spanish Ships being new rigged and their wants supplyed their King still hot on his former resolutions instantly urged and hastened his Commanders to put forth again to Sea which accordingly they did upon the eleventh of July with the same South wind which as was said before brought back our Navy into Plimouth and so having a more favourable Gale with brave shews and full Sails they entred our Channel where casting Anchor they dispatched certain small Pinnaces to the Prince of Parma to signifie their arrival and readiness and to command him in the name of their King to forward his charge for that service July the twentieth about noon this terrible Fleet was descried by the English coming forward amain with a South-west wind It was a kind of surprise For that as was said many of our men were gone to land and our Ships ready to depart Nevertheless our undaunted Admiral towed forth such Ships as he could get in readiness into the deep Sea not without great difficulty certainly with singular diligence and admirable alacrity of our Mariners cheered up with the Admirals own presence and assistance among them at their halserwork the wind blowing strongly into the Haven When they were forth they saw the Spanish Ships with lofty Towers like Castles in front like an half-moon the horns whereof stretched forth in breadth about seven miles sayling as it were with labour to the winds the Ocean groaning under them so that though with full sails yet they came but slowly forward They seemed as it were to make for Plymouth but whether their Commission was otherwise or because contrary to their expectation they saw the English Ships out of the Harbour they steered by towards Calice hoping to meet with the Prince of Parma the English willingly suffered them to pass by that they might the more commodiously chase them in the Reer with a fore-right wind July the twenty first the Lord Admiral of England sent before him a Pinnace called the Defiance to denounce War by discharging her Ordnance himself following in the Ark-Royal set upon the Admiral as he thought of the Spaniards but it proved to be Leva's Ship where fire smoke and loud thundring Cannons began the parley and rending Bullets most freely enterchanged betwixt them were fiery Messengers of each others minds Soon after came up Drake Hawkins and Forbusher playing with their Ordnance upon the hindmost Squadron of the Enemies which was commanded by Rechalde who laboured all he could to stay his Men from flying for shelter to the Fleet till his own Ship being much battered with shot and now grown unserviceable was with much difficulty drawn into the main Fleet. At which time the Duke of Medina gathered together his whole Fleet scattered here and there by the English and hoising more Sail kept on his intended course toward Callice neither indeed could he do otherwise the wind favouring the English and himself finding the inconvenience of their great and high built Ships powerful to defend but not to offend to stand but not to move whereas on the contrary their enemies were nimble and ready on all sides to annoy them and as apt to escape harms themselves being low built and so easily shot over Hereupon he caused them to gather themselves up close in the form of an half-moon and to slacken their Sails that their whole Fleet might keep together But our English Admiral having maintained an hot fight for the space of two hours thought not good to continue it any longer thirty of his Ships scarce coming to the work the rest being as yet scarce gotten out of the Harbour In this first days fight the Saint Katherine a Spanish Ship having been sorely battered and much torn was taken into the middest of their Fleet to be repaired And an huge Ship of Biscaie of Don Oquendoes in which was a great part of the Kings treasure began to be all in a Flame by force of Gunpowder which was fired on purpose by a Flemish Gunner for being misused by them But the fire was soon quenched by the assistance of some other Ships sent in to her help All this while the Spaniards for want of Courage which they called Commission did what they could to decline the Fight casting themselves continually into Roundels their strongest Ships walling in the rest in which posture they made a flying march towards Callice yet in the former medly a great Gallion wherein was Don Pedro de Valdez Vasques de Silva Alenzo de Saias with other Noble men being sore battered with the English shot in avoyding whereof she fell foul upon another Ship and ere she could be cleared had her Fore-mast broken off which so hindred her Sailing that she was unable to keep way with the rest of the Fleet nor
he was made to believe by his Companions that he should be bountifully rewarded for that his good service to the Catholick Cause now perceiving that on the contrary his Death had been contrived by them he thereupon freely confessed all that he knew concerning that horrid Conspiracy which before all the tortures of the rack could not force him unto The truth of all this was attested by Mr William Perkins an eminent Christian and Citizen of London to Dr Gouge which Mr Perkins had it from the mouth of Mr Clement Cotton that made our English Concordance who also had it from the Relation of Mr Pickering himself The Names of those that were first in this Treason and laboured in the Mine were Robert Catesby Robert Winter Esquires Thomas Percy Thomas Winter John Wright Christopher Wright Guy Fawkes Gentlemen and Bates Catesbies man Persons made acquainted with it and Promoters of it were Sir Everard Digby Knight Ambrose Rookwood Francis Tresham Esquires John Grant Gentleman Robert Keyes This prodigious contrivance did not only stupifie the whole Kingdom with consternation and amazement but Foreign Princes at least seemed to wonder at it also and though for the propagation of the Catholick cause they might have Conscience enough to wish that it had taken effect yet they had policy enough to congratulate the discoverers and some of them to take off the asperity of the suspect sweetned their expressions with many rich gifts to our King and Queen The Parliament by reason of the hurry occasioned hereby met not till the ninth of November at which time Henry Lord Mordant and Edward Lord Sturton not coming to the Parliament according to their Writ of Summons were suspected as having knowledge of the Conspiracy and so was the Earl of Northumberland from some presumptions and all three were Committed to the Tower The two Barons after a while were redeemed by fine in Starchamber but the Earl continued a Prisoner there for many years after How the Parliament was affected for this great deliverance of the whole Kingdom from ruine and destruction will appear by the Act which they made to have the fifth of November for ever solemnized with Publick Thanksgiving wherein they imputed the discovery of the Treason to the inspiring the King with a divine spirit to interpret some dark Phrases of the Letter above and beyond all ordinary construction they attainted also the blood of those Traytors that were executed as also of those that were slain at Holbach-House or that died in Prison and the King being not unmindful of the Lord Monteagle the first discoverer of this Treason gave him and his Heirs for ever two hundred pounds a year in Fee-Farm Rents and 500l l a year besides during his life as a reward for his good service But now to the Act it self An Act for a Publick Thanksgiving to Almighty God every year on the fifth of November FOrasmuch as Almighty God hath in all Ages shewed his Power and Mercy in the miraculous and gracious deliverance of his Church and in the protection of Religious Kings and States and that no Nation of the Earth hath been blessed with greater benefits than this Kingdom now enjoyeth having the true and free profession of the Gospel under our most Sovereign Lord King James the most Great Learned and Religious King that ever reigned therein enriched with a most hopeful and plentiful Progeny proceeding out of his Royal Loyns promising the continuance of this happiness and profession to all Posterity the which many malignant and Devillish Papists Jesuits and Seminary Priests much envying and fearing conspired most horribly when the Kings most Excellent Majesty the Queen the Prince and all the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons should have been Assembled in the Vpper House of Parliament upon the fifth day of November in the year of our Lord 1605. suddenly to have blown up the said House with Gunpowder an invention so inhumane barbarous and cruel as the like was never before heard of and was as some of the principal Conspirators confess purposely devised and concluded to be done in the said House that where sundry necessary and Religious Laws for preservation of the Church and State were made which they falsly and slanderously term cruel Laws enacted against them and their Religion both place and persons should be all destroyed and blown up at once which would have turned to the utter ruine of this whole Kingdom had it not pleased Almighty God by inspiring the Kings most Excellent Majesty with a divine spirit to interpret some dark phrases of a Letter shewed to his Majesty above and beyond all ordinary construction thereby miraculously discovering this hidden Treason not many hours before the appointed time for the Execution thereof Therefore the Kings most Excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all his Majesties faithful and loving Subjects do most justly acknowledge this great and infinite blessing to have proceeded meerly from Gods great mercy and to his most holy name do ascribe all Honour Glory and Praise And to the end this unfeigned thankfulness may never be forgotten but be had in a perpetual remembrance that all Ages to come may yield praises to his Divine Majesty for the same and have in memory this joyful day of deliverance Be it therefore enacted by the Kings most Excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and by the Commons in this present Parliament assembled and by the Authority of the same That all and singular Ministers in every Cathedral and Parish Church or other usual place for Common-Prayer within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same shall alwaies upon the fifth day of November say Morning Prayer and give unto Almighty God thanks for this most happy deliverance and that all and every person and persons inhabiting within this Realm of England and the Dominions of the same shall alwaies upon that day diligently and faithfully resort to the Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or to some usual Church or Chappel where the said Morning Prayer Preaching or other service of God shall be used and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the said Prayer Preaching or other service of God there to be used and ministred And because all and every person may be put in mind of this duty and be the better prepared to the said holy service Be it Enacted by the Authority aforesaid that every Minister shall give warning to his Parishioners publickly in the Church at Morning Prayer the Sunday before every such fifth of November for the due observation of the said day And that after Morning Prayer or Preaching on the said fifth day of November they read distinctly and plainly this present Act. Upon the Powder-Plot OH Murtherous Plot Posterity shall say 'S Vnholyness o'reshoots Caligula The Pope by this and such designs 't is plain Out-Babels Nimrod and out-Butchers Cain Monteagle's Letter was in dubious sence And seem'd a piece of