Foxe - The Book of Martyrs

Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
of searching for stolen tapestry hangings in that place, and other houses thereabouts, to
remove the wood, and see if anything was concealed underneath. This gentleman going at
midnight, with several attendants, to the cellar, met Fawkes, just coming out of it, booted and
spurred, with a tinder-box and three matches in his pockets, and seizing him without any
ceremony, or asking him any questions, as soon as the removal of the wood discovered the
barrels of gunpowder, he caused him to be bound, and properly secured.
Fawkes, who was a hardened and intrepid villain, made no hesitation of avowing the
design, and that it was to have been executed on the morrow. He made the same
acknowledgment at his examination before a committee of the council; and though he did
not deny having some associates in this conspiracy, yet no threats of torture could make him
discover any of them, he declaring that "he was ready to die, and had rather suffer ten
thousand deaths, than willingly accuse his master, or any other."
By repeated examinations, however, and assurances of his master's being apprehended,
he at length acknowledged, "that whilst he was abroad, Percy had kept the keys of the cellar,
had been in it since the powder had been laid there, and, in effect, that he was one of the
principal actors in the intended tragedy."
In the mean time it was found out, that Percy had come post out of the north on Saturday
night, the 2d of November, and had dined on Monday at Sion-house, with the earl of
Northumberland; that Fawkes had met him on the road, and that, after the lord chamberlain
had been that evening in the cellar, he went, about six o'clock,[314] to his master, who had
fled immediately, apprehending the plot was detected.
The news of the discovery immediately spreading, the conspirators fled different ways,
but chiefly into Warwickshire, where Sir Everard Digby had appointed a hunting-match, near
Dunchurch, to get a number of recusants together, sufficient to seize the princess Elizabeth;
but this design was prevented by her taking refuge in Coventry; and their whole party,
making about one hundred, retired to Holbeach, the seat of Sir Stephen Littleton, on the
borders of Staffordshire, having broken open stables, and taken horses from different people
in the adjoining counties.
Sir Richard Walsh, high sheriff of Worcestershire, pursued them to Holbeach, where he
invested them, and summoned them to surrender. In preparing for their defence, they put
some moist powder before a fire to dry, and a spark from the coals setting it on fire, some of
the conspirators were so burned in their faces, thighs, and arms, that they were scarcely able
to handle their weapons. Their case was desperate, and no means of escape appearing, unless
by forcing their way through the assailants, they made a furious sally for that purpose.
Catesby (who first proposed the manner of the plot) and Percy were both killed. Thomas
Winter, Grant, Digby, Rockwood, and Bates, were taken and carried to London, were the
first made a full discovery of the conspiracy. Tresham, lurking about the city, and frequently
shifting his quarters, was apprehended soon after, and having confessed the whole matter,
died of the strangury, in the Tower. The earl of Northumberland, suspected on account of his
being related to Thomas Percy, was, by way of precaution, committed to the custody of the
archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth; and was afterwards fined thirty thousand pounds, and
sent to the Tower, for admitting Percy into the band of gentlemen pensioners, without tending
him the oath of supremacy.
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