What was the Gunpowder Plot? Part 8

[152] November 7th, 1605.

[153] Winter says: "... We heard that the Parliament should be anew adjourned until after Michaelmas; upon which tidings we broke off both discourse and working until after Christmas" (November 23rd, 1605).

Lingard writes, "When a fortnight had thus been devoted to uninterrupted labour, Faukes informed his a.s.sociates that the Parliament was prorogued from the 7th of February to the 3rd of October. They immediately separated to spend the Christmas holidays at their respective homes."--_History_, vii. 47 (ed. 1883).

[154] Faukes, as has been said, makes the work upon the wall terminate at Candlemas. Winter (_ut sup._) says that they brought over the powder at Candlemas, that is, after they had been some time engaged upon the wall, and found the need of the a.s.sistance of Keyes.

[155] _Lord's Journals_ "A^o 1604(5) 2 Jac.--Memorandum quod hodierno die, septimo die Februarii, A^o Regis nri Jacobi, _viz._ Angliae (etc.) 2^{ndo}, & Scotiae 38^o, in quem diem prorogatum fuerat hoc praesens parliamentum, convenere Proceres tam Spirituales quam Temporales, quorum nomina subscribuntur."

Then follow twenty-nine names, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lords Ellesmere (_Chancellor_), Dorset (_Treasurer_), Nottingham (_Admiral_), Suffolk (_Chamberlain_), Northumberland, Cranborne (Cecil), Northampton, etc. It is noted "Lords Montagu, Petre, and Gerard [all three Catholics] were present, though they were none of the Commissioners."

[156] _Narrative_ (Stonyhurst MSS.), fol. 44 b.

[157] This absurd supposition is obviously implied by Faukes (November 17th, 1605), and T. Winter (November 23rd), in the only two accounts furnished by any of the conspirators wherein the episode of the mine is mentioned. In Barlow's _Gunpowder Treason_ (_Harleian Miscellany_, iii.

123) it is expressly stated that the confederates "came to the knowledge of the vault" only on the occasion now detailed. Tierney says (Dodd's _Church History_, iv. 45, note): "At this moment an accidental noise ...

first acquainted them with the existence of the cellar."

[158] On the 3rd of October following, Thomas Winter was sent to be present at the ceremony of prorogation, and to watch the demeanour of the a.s.sembled peers.

[159] _Gunpowder Plot_, p. 55. This account is based almost entirely on that of Faukes, November 17th, 1605.

[160] In his Italian version of Father Gerard's history, Father Greenway interpolates the following note: "Questi non erano carboni di legno, ma una sorte di pietra negra, la quale come carbone abrugia et fa un fuogo bellissimo et ottimo" (fol. 44 b).

[161]

"These Pioneers through Piercies chamber brought Th' exhausted earth, great baskets full of clay; Thereby t' have made a mighty concave vau't, And of the house the ground worke tooke away: But then at last an obstacle they finde, Which to remove proud Piercy casts in 's mind.

A thick stone wall their pa.s.sage then did let; Whereby they cou'd not finish their intent.

Then forthwith Piercy did a sellar get, Under that sacred house for yearly rent: Feigning to fill 't with Char coal, Wood, & Beere, From all suspect themselves to cloake & cleere."

JOHN VICARS, _Mischeefes Mysterie_.

This remarkable poem, published 1617, is a much expanded translation of _Pietas Pontificia_ (in Latin hexameter verse) by Francis Herring, which appeared in 1606.

[162] On this point we are furnished with more than the usual amount of variety as to details. Cecil, writing to the amba.s.sadors (Cornwallis, Edmondes, etc.), says there were "two hodgsheads and some 30 small barrels." The King's _Discourse_ mentions 36 barrels. Barclay (_Conspiratio Anglicana_) says there were over 9,000 lb. of powder, in 32 barrels, and that one of extra size had been placed under the throne, for treason could not without dread a.s.sail Majesty even when unarmed.

The indictment of the conspirators named 30 barrels and 4 hogsheads. Sir E. c.o.ke always said 36 barrels. Barlow's _Gunpowder Treason_ makes the extraordinary statement, frequently reproduced, that "to the 20 Barrels of Powder laid in at first, they added in July 20 more, and at last made up the number Thirty-six." Faukes (November 5th) said that of the powder "some was put in hoggesheads, some in Barrels, and some in firkins."

Faukes also says that the powder was conveyed to the place in hampers.

John Chamberlain, writing to Dudley Carleton, November 7th, 1605, says it was carried in satchels. Barlow (_ut sup._) quotes the amount as 9,000 or 10,000 lb.

[163] November 23rd, 1605.

[164] _The Gunpowder Plot_, by L., 1805. It seems highly probable that the "cellar" was used as a public pa.s.sage.

[165] Hugh F. Martyndale, _A Familiar a.n.a.lysis of the Calendar of the Church of England_ (November 5th). London, Effingham Wilson.

[166] _Letter to Cornwallis and Edmondes_, November 9th, 1605.

[167] H. F. Martyndale, _ut sup._

[168] Letter to the Amba.s.sadors, _ut sup._

[169] _An Advertis.e.m.e.nt written to a Secretarie_, etc. (1592), p. 13.

[170] Sir R. Naunton, _Fragmenta Regalia (Harleian Miscellany_, ii.

106).

[171] Blount to Parsons (Stonyhurst MSS.), _Anglia_, vi. 64.

[172] Such letters are found amongst the State Papers.

[173] The amount, it would seem, cannot have been less than this. A barrel of gunpowder, containing four firkins, weighed 400 lb., and had the casks in the cellar all been barrels, in the strict sense of the word, the amount would therefore have exceeded six tons. Some of these casks, we are told, were small, but some were hogsheads. The twenty barrels first laid in are described as "whole barrels." (Faukes, January 20th, 1605-6.)

[174] An interesting ill.u.s.tration of this point is furnished by a strange piece of evidence furnished by W. Andrew, servant to Sir E.

Digby. Sir Everard's office was to organize the rising in the Midlands, after the catastrophe, but he apparently forgot to supply himself with powder till the very eve of the appointed day. Andrew averred that on the night of November 4th, his master secretly asked him to procure some powder in the neighbouring town, whereupon he asked, "How much? A pound, or half a pound?" Sir Everard said 200 or 300 lb. Deponent purchased one pound. (Tanner MSS. lxxv. f. 205 b.)

One Matthew Batty mentioned Lord Monteagle as having bought gunpowder.

(_Ibid._ v. 40.)

In the same collection is a copy of some notes by Sir E. c.o.ke (f. 185 b), in which the price of the powder discovered is put down as 200, _i.e._ some 2,000 of our money.

[175] Gunpowder was measured by the _last_ = 2,400 lb. (Tomline's _Law Dictionary_.) In 1607 there were delivered out of the store 14 lasts and some cwts. In 1608 the amount in various strong places is entered as: "_Dover Castle_, 4 lasts; _Arcliffe Bullwark_, 1 last; _Walmer_, 1 last, 8 cwt.; _Deal Castle_, 1 last; _Sandown Castle_, 2 lasts, etc.; _Sandgate_, 1 last; _Camber_, 1 last."

[176] The position and character of the "cellar" admit of no doubt, as appears from the testimony of Smith's _Antiquities of Westminster_, Brayley and Britton's _Ancient Palace of Westminster_, and Capon's notes on the same, _Vetusta Monumenta_, v. They are, however, inconsistent with some circ.u.mstances alleged by the government. Thus, Sir Everard Digby's complicity with "the worst part" of the treason, which on several occasions he denied, is held to be established by a confession of Faukes, which cannot now be found among the State Papers, but which is mentioned in Sir E. c.o.ke's speech upon Digby's arraignment, and is printed in Barlow's _Gunpowder Treason_, p. 68. In Sir E. c.o.ke's version it runs thus: "Fawkes, then present at the bar, had confessed, that some time before that session, the said Fawkes being with Digby at his house in the country, about which time there had fallen much wet, Digby taking Fawkes aside after supper, told him he was much afraid that the powder in the cellar was grown damp, and that some new must be provided, lest that should not take fire."

Seeing, however, that the powder stood above ground, within a most substantial building, and could be reached by the rain only if this should first flood the Chamber of the Peers, it does not seem as if the idea of such a danger should have suggested itself.

Another interesting point in connection with the "cellar" is that the House of Lords having subsequently been removed to the Court of Requests, and afterwards to the Painted Chamber, "Guy Faukes' Cellar" on each occasion accompanied the migration. From Leigh's _New Picture of London_ we find that in 1824-5, when the Court of Requests was in use, and the old cellar had completely disappeared, Guy's Cellar was still shown; while a plate given in Knight's _Old England_, and elsewhere, represents a vault under the Painted Chamber, not used as the House of Lords till after 1832. Such a cellar seems to have been considered a necessary appurtenance of the House.

[177] Afterwards the Electress Palatine.

[178] Gardiner, _Hist._ i. 245; Lingard, vii. 59; T. Winter, November 23rd, 1605.

[179] Faukes, November 17th, 1605.

[180] Harry Morgan, _Examination_ (R.O.), November 12th, 1605.

[181] T. Winter, November 23rd and 25th, 1605. As the information about Prince Henry was alleged to have been communicated by Lord Monteagle, the pa.s.sage has been mutilated in the published version to conceal this circ.u.mstance.

[182] Faukes, November 5th, 1605.

[183] Sir E. Digby, Barlow's _Gunpowder Treason_, App. 249.

[184] Faukes, November 17th, 1605.

[185] Digby, _ut sup._

[186] _History_, i. 239.

[187] There is also an allusion to the same in the confession of Keyes, November 30th, 1605; but this doc.u.ment also is of a highly suspicious character. Of the seven miners, none but these three were taken alive; Catesby, Percy, and the two Wrights being killed in the field. Strangely enough, though Keyes may be cited as a witness on this subject, on which his evidence is of such singular importance, the government, for some purpose of its own, tampered with the confession of Faukes wherein he is mentioned as one of the excavators, subst.i.tuting Robert Winter's name for his, and placing Keyes amongst those "that wrought not in the myne."

See Jardine's remarks on this point, _Criminal Trials_, ii. 6.