I was shot into the shoulder which lost me the use of mine Arme the next shot was the elder Wright stricken dead after him the younger Master Wright and fourthly Ambrose Rookwood Then said Master Catesby to me standing before the dore they were to enter stand by me Tom and we will die together Sir quoth I I have lost the use of my right Arme and I feare that will cause me to be taken So as we stood close together Master Catesby Master Percy and my self they two were shot as far as I could guess with one Bullet and then the company entred upon me hurt me in the Belly with a Pike and gave me other wounds untill one came behind and caught hold of both mine armes And so Iremaine yours c. Commiss Edward Somerset Earle of Worcester Charles Earle of Notingham Lord Admiral Thomas Earle of Suffolke Lord Chamberlaine Charles Earle of Devonshire Lord Deputy of Ireland Henry Earle of Northampton Lord Privie Seale Robert Earle of Salisbury Principal Secretary John Erskeine Earle of Marre and Garioth William Constable Viscount Dunbar Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice Sir Edward Cooke Atturney General Sir William Waad Lievtenant of the Tower The names of those that were first in the Treason and laboured in the Myne Robert Catesby Esquires Robert Winter Esquires Thomas Percy Gentlemen Thomas Winter Gentlemen John Wright Gentlemen Christopher Wright Gentlemen Guido Fawkes And Bates Catesbies man The names of those that were made acquainted with it though not personally labouring in the Myne nor in the Cellar Everard Digby Knight Ambrose Rookwood Esquires Francis Tresham Esquires Stephen Littleton Esquires John Grant Gent. Robert Keyes Gent. Sir Everad Digby and some others of the chiefest were executed in Pauls-Church-yard The Names of those that did rise in Rebellion with them and also of those that did harbor and releeve some of them contrary to the Kings Proclamations posted down into the Country Lodow. Grant Gent. Executed at Warwi H. Morgan Gent. Executed at Warwi John Winter Gent. Executed at Worcester Hum. Littleton Gent. Executed at Worcester Perks of Hagley and Burford his man Executed at Worcester Smart and lihead Executed at Stafford For harboring and releeving Robert Winter and Stephen Littleton at West-Bramwich before they fled to Hagley When these monstrous offenders were made examples of famous and honorable justice the King and the Parliament took special care to find out such Popish Divines as gave Counsel and countenance to this unheard of villany For it is proper to all the Treasons attempted in England to have some Romish Priest or Jesuite in the practice The Devill who was a Murtherer from the beginning will evermore make choice of the fittest instruments that may be for the bringing of his cursed and cruel designes into action Not the dull Asse not the heavy Oxe not the silly sheep but the subtile serpent must help to set forward his work of temptation Many of these Incendiaries inspired by the powers of darkness with a transcendent rage against the State being chased with the guiltiness of their own consciencies fled from their triall into forraine Countries for their better safety Father Creswell puting himself into the habit of a Merchant took shipping at Bristol and wafted into Spaine where he had been leiger Jesuite a little before and came into England at this time to beare his part with the rest of his society in a victoral song or song of thanksgiving for the extirpation and rooting out of those who do worship God after that way which they call Heresie But Garnet and Oldcerne two of the principal were apprehended at Henlip in the County of Worcester in Mr Abingtons house where they were immured and closed up in a stack of Chymnies the way or passage into the Cave or Vault where they lay was in an upper room or chamber by taking up the half pace before the hearth whose wooden border was made like to a trap-door to pluck up and let down and then the bricks were laid in their courses and order again Such holes have these Foxes made for their hiding places Upon their examination and confession of their own guiltiness of their foreknowledge and concealment of this so detestable a Treason they did both suffer condigne punishment and Garnet whose Authority was great and Reverend with Catesby and the rest of the Arch. Traytors was executed in Pauls-Church-yard upon the third of May next ensuing the discovery of the Plot. He was a man saith the Un-Jesuited Cardinal incomparable for learning of all kindes but surely had he had less learning and more grace he would never have had a hand in so foul a business As for the gentle hearted Jesuite Parsons who had dipt his pen in gall against our most renowned Queen Elizabeth he always kept himself without the reach and jerke of the rod of Justice and dyed shortly after at Rome in that old House which was converted to a New-Colledge by Pope Gregory the thirteenth as we have said before whereof he was Rector much grieved no doubt for that their holy Enterprize did so miscarrie And Owen brother to Owen of Godstow by Oxford succeeded him in that place and to him succeeded Fitz-Herbert But Baldwine who was of the Councel of this horrible Treason whiles he lurked in the Low-Countries was many years after apprehended at Basil in Switzerland as he was going up into Italy and being brought into England and falling into the hands of a mercifull Prince found more favor then he deserved For by the means and mediation of Don Gondomar the Spanish Ambassador an honorable Spy the King granted him his pardon And the Ambassador with all his train went to the prison and with great veneration brought him forth and set him at liberty which made the account of his Ambassage the more acceptable to the Duke of Lerma President of the grand Counsel of Spain when he returned home We have now seen how much was wrought to have turned the Parliament-House into a Slaughter-house to have brought our Nation under the calamity of Antichristian servitude and once more to have clapt the Popes Saddle upon Englands back which if God Almighty had suffered for our sins to have been brought to pass then might our neighbors of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas have said and that truly that the Divel did ride us Notwithstanding the greatness of this Treason so great as no history can equal yet some of the Traytors viler then the earth See King James his premonition pag. 6. and his Apology pag. 78. at the time of their death would not ask God or King forgiveness nor acknowledg that they had done any fault unless the Church of Rome should first condemn it as if Treason were no Treason and Murder were no Murder unless the Church of Rome judg it to be so Never was there any Sect or sort of people in the World neither Turk nor Jew nor Infidel no not those of Calicute which
to his Majesty The contents whereof follow MY Lord out of theleve I beare to some of your friends I have a care of your preservation Theresore I would advise you as you fender your life to devise so me excuse to shift off your affendance at this Parliament For God and Man have toncurred to punish the wickedness of this time And thinke not nightly of this Aovertisement but retire your self into your Country where you may expect the event in safety For though there be no appeatance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament and yet they shall net see who burts them This Counsell is not to be contemned because it may doe you good and can doe you no barme for the danger is past so soon as you have burnt the Letter And I hope God will give you the grace to make good vse of it To whose holy profection I commend you The King no sooner read the Letter but after a little pause and then reading it over againe he delivered his judgement of it in such sort as he thought it was not to be contemned for that the style of it seemed to be more quick and pithie then is usual to be in any Pasquil or Libel the superfluities of idle brains But the Earle of Salisbury perceiving the King to apprehend it deeplier then he looked for knowing his nature told him that he thought by one sentence in it that it was like to be written by some Foole or Madman reading to him this sentence in it For the danger is past as soon as you have burnt the Letter which he said was likely to be the saysing of a Foole if the danger was past o soon as the Letter was burnt the warning behoved to be of little availe when the burning might make the danger to be eschewed But the King by the contrary considering the former sentence in the Letter That they should receive a terrible blow at this Parliament and yet should not see who hurt them joyning it to the sentence immediately following already alleadged did thereupon conjecture That the danger mentioned should be some suddain danger by blowing up of Powder For no other Insurrection Rebellion or whatsoever other private and desperate Attempt could be committed or attemoted in time of Parliament and the Authors thereof unseen except it were only by a blowing up of Powder which might he performed by one base knave in a dark corner whereupon he was move to interpret and construe the latter sentence in the Letter alleadged by the Earle of Salisbury against all ordinary sense and construction in Grammar as if by these words For the danger is past as soon as you have burned the Letter should be closely understood the suddainty and quickness of the danger which should be as quickly performed and at an end as that paper should be of blazing up in the fire tnrning that word of as soon to the sense of as quickly And therefore wished that before his going to the Parliament the under rooms of the Parliament house might be well and narrowly searched But the Earle of Salisbury wondring at his Majesties Commentary which he knew to be so farre contrary to his ordinary and naturall disposition who did ever sin upon the other side in not apprehending nor trusting due Advertisements of practises and perils when he was truly informed of them whereby he had many times drawn himself into many desperate dangers and interpreting rightly this extraordinary caution at this time to proceed from the vigilant care he had of the whole State more then of his own person which could not but have all perished together if this designement had succeeded He thought good to dissemble still unto the King that there had been any just cause of such apprehension And ending the purpose with some merry jest upon this Subject as his custome is took his leave for that time But though he seemed so to neglect it to his Majesty yet his customable and watchfull care of the King and the State still boyling within him And having with the blessed Virgin Mary laid up in his heart the Kings so strange judgement and construction of it He could not be at rest till he had acquainted the foresaid Lords what had passed between the King and him in private Whereupon they were all earnest to renew again the memorie of the same purpose to his Majesty as it was agreed that he should the next day being Saturday repair to his Highness which he did in the same privy Gallery and renewed the memory thereof the Lord Chamberlain then being present with the King At what time it was determined that the said Lord Chamberlain should according to his Custome and Office view all the Parliament houses both above and below and consider what likelihood or appearance of any such danger might possibly be gathered by the sight of them But yet aswell for staying of idle rumors as for being the more able to discerne any mystery the nearer that things were in readiness his journey thither was ordained to be deferred till the afternoon before the sitting down of the Parliament which was upon the Monday following At what time he according to this conclusion went to the Parliament house accompanied with my Lord Mountegle being in reale to the Kings service earnest and curious to see the event of that accident whereof he had the fortune to be the first discovered Where having viewed all the lower rooms he found in the vault under the upper house great store and provision of Billets Fagots and Coales And enquiring of Whyneard keeper of the Wardrobe to what use he had put those lower rooms and cellars he told him that Thomas Percy had hired both the house and part of the Cellar or vault under the same and that the Wood and Coale therein was the said Gentlemans own provision Whereupon the Lord Chamberlain casting his eye aside perceived a fellow standing in a corner there calling himself the said Percies man keeper of that house for him but was indeed Cuido Fawkes the owner of that hand which should have acted that monstrous Tragedy The Lord Chamberlain looking upon all things with a heedfull indeed yet in outward appearance but with a careless and rackless eye as became so wise and diligent a Minister he presently addressed himself to the King in the said Privy Gallery where in the presence of the Lord Treasurer the Lord Admiral the Earles of Worcester Northampton and Salisbury he made his report what he had seen and observed there noting that Mountegle had told him That he no sooner heard Thomas Percy named to be the possessor of that house but considering both his backwardness in Religion and the old dearness in friendship between himself and the said Percy he did greatly suspect the matter and that the Letter should come from him The said Lord Chamberlain also told That he did not wonder a little at the extraordinary great
provision of Wood and Coale in that house where Thomas Percy had so seldome occasion to remain As likewise it gave him in his minde that his man looked like a very tall and desperate fellow This could not but encrease the Kings former apprehension and jealousie whereupon he insisted as before that the House was narrowly to be searched and that those Billets and Coales would be searched to the bottom it being most suspitious that they were laid there only for covering of the powder Of this same mind also were all the Counsellors then present But upon the fashion of making the search was it long debated For upon the one side they were all so jealous of the Kings safety that they all agreed that there could not be too much caution used for preventing his danger And yet upon the other part they were all extreame loth and dainty that in case this Letter should prove to be nothing but the evaporation of an idle brain then a curious search being made and nothing found should not only turn to the general scandal of the King and the State as being so suspitious of every light and frivolous toy but likewise lay an illfavored imputation upon the Earle of Northumberland one of his Majesties greatest Subjects and Counfellors this Thomas Percy being his kinsman and most confident familiar And the rather were they curious in this point knowing how far the King detested to be thought suspitious or jealous of any of his good Subjects though of the meanest degree And therefore though they all agreed upon the maine ground which was to provide for the security of the Kings person yet did they much differ in the circumstances by which this action might be best carried with least din and occasion of slander But the King himself still persisting that there were divers shrewd appearances and that a narrow search of those places could prejudice no man that was innocent he at last plainly resolved them That either must all the parts of those roomes be narrowly searched and no possibility of danger left unexamined or else he and they all must resolve not to meddle in it at all but plainly to goe the next day to the Parliament and leave the success to fortune which he beleeved they would be loth to take upon their consciences for in such a case as this an halfe doing was worse then no doing at all Wherefore it was at last concluded That nothing should be left unsearched in those houses And yet for the better colour and stay of rumour in case nothing were found it was thought meet that upon a pretence of Whyneards missing some of the Kings stuff or Hangings which he had in keeping all those roomes should be narrowly ripped for them And to this purpose was Sir Thomas Knever a Gentleman of his Majesties privie Chamber employed being a Justice of Peace in Westminster and one of whose ancient fidelity both the late Queen and our now Soveraign hath had large proof who according to the trust committed unto him went about the midnight next after to the Parliament house accompanied with such a small number as was fit for that errand But before his entry into the house finding Thomas Percies alledged man standing without the dores his clothes and boots on at so dead a time of the night he resolved to apprehend him as he did and thereafter went forward to the searching of the house whereafter he had caused to be overturned some of the Billets and Coales he first found one of the small Barrels of Powder and after all the rest to the number of thirty six Barrels great and small And there after fearching the fellow whom he had taken found three matches and all other instruments fit for blowing up the powder ready upon him which made him instantly confess his own guiltiness declaring also unto him That if he had hapned to be within the house when he tookhim as he was immediatly before at the ending of his work he would not have failed to have blown him up house and all Thus after Sir Thomas had caused the wretch to be surely bound and well guarded by the company he had brought with him he himself returned back to the Kings Palace and gave warning of his success to the Lord Chamberlain and Earle of Salisbury who immed atly warning all the rest of the Counsell that lay in the house as soon as they could get themselves ready came with their fellow Counfellers to the Kings Bed-Chamber being at that time near four of the Clock in the morning And at the first entry of the Kings Chamber door the Lord Chamberlain being not any longer able to conceale his joy for the preventing of so great a danger told the King in a confused haste that all was found and discovered and the Traytor in hands and fast bound Then order being first taken for sending for the rest of the Council that lay in the Towne The Prisoner himself was brought into the house where in respect of the strangeness of the accident no man was staid from the sight or speaking with him And within a while after the Council did examine him who seemed to put on a Roman resolution did both to the Council and to every other person that spake with him that day appeare so constant and setled upon his grounds as we all thought we had found some new Mutius Scaevola borne in England For notwithstanding the horror of the Fact the guilt of his Conscience his suddain surprising the terror which should have been strucken in him by coming into the presence of so grave a Council and the restless and consused questions that every man all that day did vex him with yet was his countenance so far from being dejected as he often smiled in scornful manner not only avowing the Fact but repenting only with the said Scaevola his faâ—ling in the execution thereof whereof he said the Devil and not God was the discoverer answering quickly to every mans objection scossing at any idle questions which were propounded unto him and jesting with such as he thought had no authority to examine him All that day could the Council get nothing out of him touching his complices refusing to answer to any such questions which he thought might discover the plot and laying all the blame upon himself whereupon he said he was moved only for Religion and conscience sake denying the King to be his lawfull Soveraign or the anoynted of God in respect he was an Heretick and giving himself no other name then John Johnson servant to Thomas Percy But the next morning being carried to the Tower he did not there remaine above two or three daies being twice or thrice in that space re-examined and and the rack only offered and shewed unto him when the mask of his Roman fortitude did visibly begin to wear and slide of his face And then did he begin to confess part of the truth and thereafter to open the whole