In the last part of our tale, we find Guy
Fawkes, the brave Yorkshire man and experienced miner and sapper soldier,
being questioned by the King,
having been interrupted in his work of blowing up Parliament. The others
are rushing north to the Midlands and preparing to capture members of the
royal family or rescue Catholic friends and relatives from the explosion.
Cecil,
in his writings about Fawkes under questioning, "(He was) no more dismayed,
nay, scarce any more troubled, than if he were taken for a poor robbery
on the highway."
One must
imagine the meeting of the King
with Fawkes and the remembrance of his own father's assassination by gunpowder
at Kirk o' Field.
Christopher
Wright was wandering about the Strand before five in the morning of
November 5. Wright heard the commotion and that the matter was discovered.
He went and found Thomas Winter
at the Duck and Drake.
John Lepton
Groom of the Privy Chamber was already on horseback riding in search of
Percy.
But he was riding north while Percy
slept at the Red Lion.
Wright
wakes Percy
muttering "I am undone." He climbs onto his horse. Percy
and Wright ride out of London toward Dunchurch
and the planned rising.
Meanwhile,
Rookwood
and Keyes were warned as they stayed at Mrs.
Moores house near Temple Bar. The two rode on together.
Winter
himself goes to the gates of Parliament and can not pass. He was informed
that the plot has been discovered. Satisfied that all was known, he too
rode into the country.
On the
road north the conspirators meet up with one another. Catesby's
horse throws a shoe and needs to have a new one. Others are recognized
through their servants.
They all
met at Brickhill and rode on together. Cloakes were thrown into the hedge
to improve speed. Those in the countryside already had formed the hunting
party and were waiting for word.
On six
o'clock on this foul November evening, the conspirators paused at the estate
of Ashby St. Ledgers. A servant was sent
to the house with the news for Robert Winter
from the assembled group waiting outside in the rain.
Winter
joins the party on the way to the Inn at Dunchurch
on Dunsmore Heath. Digby
and the hunting party waited following dinner with mulled ale when the
six wet and bedraggled men arrived. Catesby
tells
Digby
a lie: that King
and Cecil
had been killed and the revolt must go on. The Littletons will raise a
thousand men.
Digby
tells those in his party who had not yet learned of the true reason for
the hunt. He was met by disgust from his own uncle, who stated that treason
and murder of the King
would set the Catholic cause back forever. Others also doubted and deserted
the plot. The band of conspirators left Dunchurch
with only about 50 horse, a straggling group. The servants, merrymaking
just before in the kitchen, were shocked that their masters were perpetrating
treason. As the servants rode on with their masters, doubt entered their
minds and they slipped away from them into the darkness.
Meanwhile,
in London, a mob was at the gates of the residence of the Spanish Ambassador.
Throughout the night and into the next day, the citizens were kept under
arms. There were concerned about the newly negotiated peace with Spain
and the ambassador was given special protection.
A proclamation
for the arrest of Thomas Percy
from the King
was posted. Lepton, the Privy Chamber man, continues his search but ends
up in Scotland.
Fawkes
was in the tower undergoing the first of six examinations. Not tortured
yet but it was to come. He revealed nothing.
A priest,
Father John Roberts, was found at Percy's
house. London was busy looking in several places for Percy
but had not yet widening the search to locate other conspirators.
At midnight
the conspirators; Digby,
Catesby,
Robert Winter Rookwood
and the Wrights; were on their way to Warwick.
New horses were needed. At Warwick Castle, a break in to steal horses was
contemplated. Robert Winter expresses doubt. Catesby
responds "What! Hast thou any hope, Robert? I assure thee there is none
that knoweth of this action but shall perish." They were in trouble enough.
Why not add horse stealing to the list?
Winter
remains but Rookwood
, with a fresh horse, having been pre positioned, rides to warn John Grant.
Leaving servants and pack horses outside the city gates, Catesby
and the others go to the stables of Mr. Benock adjoining the castle. Ten
horses were taken before alarm was given. But two servants were captured
and they were identified. From the servants Conyers and Fowes the Sheriff
of Warwickshire learned that the horses were laden with trunks of arms
and ammunition. Cecil
is informed by Benock. The guardians of the Princess Elizabeth
at Combe Abbey were alerted.
Catesby
and the others catch up with Rookwood
at Norbrook, the home of John Grant .
Grant had opened the secret cache of arms he had stored for this day. The
weapons were laid out on long tables in the hall.
Digby
writes to Father Garnet
to
convey to him the news. Bates was sent
with the letter to Garnet.
Lady Digby
received Bates after Mass in the secret chapel
above the gate house at Coughton Court,
a building riddled with secret priests rooms. The letter asked Garnet
to take part and help with the rising in Wales. It was pointed out that
"if he refused to accompany them but let them now perish out of any scruples
and to free himself and his fellow Jesuits from blame, he too would soon
perish, as would all Catholics."
Tesimond
was with Garnet.
They both realized that, having the knowledge from the confessional, they
were both undone. Garnet
does not rush to their aid. He asks that they surrender. Tesimond however,
left with Bates
Lady Mary
Digby
learned for the first time that her husband's was not an ordinary hunting
party and broke down to be comforted by Garnet
Lady Digby
sends horses to aid her husband
As the
conspirators move toward Huddington.
Digby's
own uncle is assisting with the rounding up of prisoners. The Sheriff of
Warwickshire estimates the size of the band to be about one hundred, with
a bit of exaggeration. Robert Winter refuses Catesby'
s request to ask John Talbot for the promised thousand men.
Bates,
Father Tesimond
and
Thomas Winter join the band. Tresham
stayed in London.
When the
band reached Hindlip Manor, near Huddington, it found no help from Thomas
Abingdon, owner of the manor. After staying the night there, Robert Winter's
priest, Father Nicholas Hart, hears the confession of the conspirators
and distributed communion. This was Thursday the 7th of November.
The band
rode off toward Wales and Lancashire following Tesimond They were a band
of less than forty looKing
for reinforcements. The next stop was Hewell
Grange, which they plundered for arms and ammunition. The country folk
they met along the way in response to Catesby's
request replied, "We are for King as well as for God and country."
After
a long journey mired in rainy November's cold and mud and without recruits,
the band ended up at Holbeach House.
They had been trailed by Sheriff Walsh High Sheriff of Worcestershire.
They arrived at ten that night.
Meanwhile,
Fawkes
was facing more questions. The King
requests that "the gentler tortours are to be first used unto him and by
degrees towards the uttermost and so God speede youre goode worke" of the
interrogator, William Wade, Lieutenant of the Tower. Probably after being
suspended by his thumbs, Fawkes
began to crack but only just revealed his oath not to tell. More torture
would come on the 7th. But still no information other than his true name
was revealed.
At Holbeach
House, the conspirators had two suicidal choices. They could run and be
immediately captured, or fight it out. Sheriff Walsh had raised a significant
posse of several hundred.
Grasping
at straws, Thomas Winter tried other friends but none come. Preparations
to defend the house get under way.
Damp gunpowder
wet from the ride is spread out in the great hall to dry, but a little
close to the fire. The powder was spread on a tray near another great bag
of powder. A spark from the coal fire ignited the powder and a big bag
of powder is not ignited but is blown through the roof to land in the courtyard.
John Grant had his eyes burnt out and face disfigured. Catesby
and Rookwood
were injured.
Winter
and Littleton were met with this news on their way back. Winter thought
Catesby
to be dead and went on to bury the body of his friend. Thomas Winter was
surprised finds Catesby
alive when he returns to the house. All are in prayer. "We mean here to
die," they said.
Christopher
Wright tosses money out a window to Bates who is to take it to his wife.
Robert Winter, shaken, has a wild dream of "steeples awry ,and within those
churches strange and unknown faces." He leaves with Littleton, these two
being the last to be captured. John Winter left and was captured the next
day. To seek help, Digby
left, only to be surrounded and captured in a quarry nearby.
It was
now the 8th of November a Friday. Around noon, the house was stormed. Thomas
Winter was hit and lost the use of one arm. Next the elder Wright was shot
dead, then the younger Wright and then Rookwood
. Percy
was shot together with Catesby
with one bullet and Winter beaten and captured. Accounts vary but there
was considerable chaos after the shoot out, with locals tearing off the
clothing of the victims and arguments over horses. The event has evoked
significant drama: "Mr Catesby
being fallen onto the ground as they say, went upon his knees into the
house and there got a picture off our Blessed Lady in his arms and so embracing
and kissing the same he died." Catesby
also is said to dramatically have taken a gold cross from his neck and
raised it up to swear that it all was for the honor of the cross.
But then
the marksmen shot both men dead with the same bullet. There is also significant
doubt that all who eventually died as a result of the incident died as
a result of wounds received during the struggle itself.
At the
same time as the shoot out Fawkes
was being described as "most stubborn and perverse humor as dogged as if
he were possessed.". After exposure though to Wade's less gentler toys,
perhaps the rack. Fawkes
cracked on November the 8th in the torture chamber deep under the tower.
With the exception of Percy
he still gave no names but revealed only the events of the plot.
On the
9th names were revealed including those of the Jesuits. Again on the 10th
after more torture he finally provided all the information the state required.
It was not until the 16th that he could be examined again due to injuries
inflicted.
On November
16, the Sheriff of Staffordshire is ordered to exhume the bodies of Catesby,
Percy,
the two Wrights and the others, and that the bodies be bowelled and quartered.
These pieces were to be set up in principal towns where they most led their
lives. The heads of Percy
and Catesby
were to be sent up to London. At the cost of 23s 6d for ironwork, the heads
of Catesby
and Percy
were exhibited on the ramparts of Parliament House.
Keyes was captured on November 9. Bates never carried out his mission
and was captured on November 12.
The plot
provided the government with reason to arrest many. Anne Vaux
remained free until the government had caught up with Father Garnet.
Tresham
was also not arrested until the 12th, although his connection with the
plot was well known from the start and he had lived openly in London.
Winter
and Lyttleton remained at large until Thursday, January 9, 1606, when,
after hiding in the hay in a barn, they were discovered and captured after
a chase.
On the
27th of January 1606, the first prisoners were hanged at Worcester jail,
John Perckes and Thomas Burford. Others were to follow. None survived.
That is another story as is the dramatic smoking out of
the priests from their "holes" at Hindlip house and the trial of those
accused.......
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The
Plot, Part 2
