England's Remembrancer A True and Full NARRATIVE OF Those two never to be forgotten DELIVERANCES One From The Spanish Invasion in 88. The other from The Hellish Powder Plot November 5. 1605. Whereunto is added The like Narrative of that signal Judgment of God upon the Papists by the Fall of the House in Black-Fryers London upon their fifth of November 1623. Collected for the Information and Benefit of each Family by Sam. Clark formerly Pastor in Bennet Fink Behold the wicked travelleth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falshood He made a Pit and digged it and is fallen into the ditch which he made His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate Psal. 7. 14 15 16. LONDON Printed for J. Hancock and are to be sold at the three Bibles in Popes-Head Alley next to Cornhill 1677. TO THE HONOURABLE And his Much Honoured Friends EDWARD RVSSEL Esq Son to the Right Honourable Francis Earl of BEDFORD AND TO The Lady PENELOPE His prudent and pious Consort Sir Madam I Take the boldness to present you with these Narratives not for that they are new or supposing your selves to be strangers to them but as a Testimony of my Gratitude for those favours I have received from you The high Heavens may be seen in the lowest valleys So may a large heart in the least Gift But truly though the Gift be worthless yet so is not the matter contained in it which sets forth such eminent and signal deliverances as no Church or people in these latter Ages of the world have received And there must be a recognition of Gods mercies or else there will neither follow estimation nor retribution Hence Micah 6. 5. O my people saith God many hundreds of years after remember now what Balack King of Moab consulted and what Balaam the Son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord. If there be not such a recognition of former deliverances we that should be as Temples of his praise shall be as graves of his benefits Our souls indeed are too like filthy Ponds wherein fish die soon and frogs live long Rotten stuff is remembred memorable mercies are forgotten whereas the soul should be as an holy Ark the memory as the pot of Manna preserving holy truths and special mercies as Aarons Rod fresh and flourishing Oh! let us imitate that man after Gods own heart If the Lord will be Davids Shepherd he will dwell in Gods house to all perpetuity Psalm 23. 1 6. If God deal bountifully with him he will sit down and bethink himself what to render for all his benefits Psalm 116. 7 12. A Christian counts all that he can do for God by way of retribution but a little of that much he could beteem him and thinks nothing more unbeseeming him than to bury the mercies of God in oblivion His two mites of Thankfulness and Obedience he daily presents and then cryes out as that poor Grecian did to the Emperour If I had a better present thou shouldest be sure of it What then may we judge of those persons in our daies who labour to extenuate yea annihilate these deliverances that would have no publick commemorations of them that study how to invalidate them and to blot out the remembrance of them To render good for evil is Divine Good for good is Humane Evil for evil is brutish But evil for good is Devillish Yet alas how ordinary an evil is this among us to abuse our deliverances to Gods dishonour But Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy Father he hath bought thee c. Deut. 32. 6. Should we not remember that good-turns aggravate unkindnesses and our offences are not a little encreased by our obligations Ingrateful persons are like the Snake in the Fable who said to the Country-man when he had shewed it kindness Summum praemium pro summo beneficio est ingratitudo Ingratitude is the greatest reward of the greatest benefit How many such Snakes have we amongst us that return evil for good and unkindness for kindness Is not this to fight against God with his own weapons as David did against Goliah as Jehu did against Jehoram and as Benhadad did against Ahab with that life that he had lately given him For the preventing whereof if it may be are these things published being almost worn out of remembrance more than the very names of them Besides though they may be found in larger Volumes yet are they not so fit for every Family And as I have presumed honourable and beloved to publish them under your protection so I doubt not but they will find the better entertainment for the same My earnest desire and prayer for you is that the God of Peace will fill you with all joy and peace by believeing multiplying his Blessings upon you and yours And that you would afford me a room in your Albe among those that Sir Madam From my Study in Thridneedle-Street Octob. 22. 1657. Love honour and serve you Sam. Clark THE Spanish Invasion A Commemoration of that wonderful and almost miraculous Deliverance afforded by God to this Nation from the Spanish Invasion Anno Christi 1588. THE year one thousand five hundred eighty eight was foretold by an Astronomer of Koningsberg above one hundred years before that it should prove a wonderful year and the German Chronologers presaged that it would be the Climacterical year of the World which was in some measure accomplished in that glorious and never to be forgotten Deliverance vouchsafed by God to us in England and in that fatal overthrow of the Spanish Navy A true Narrative whereof followes But that we may the better see what induced the Spaniard to make this hostile Invasion we must be informed both who were the inciters and by what arguments artifices they stirred him up thereunto The Inciters were the Pope and some traiterous English Fugitives who were entertained in Spain and at Rome The design was The Conquest of England which had been hindred for the space of ten years by reason of the Spanish Wars in Portugal The Arguments were that seeing God had blessed the King of Spain with admirable Blessings and Successes had given him in Portugal the East-Indies and very many rich Islands belonging to the same that he should therefore perform somewhat that might be acceptable to God the giver of so great and good things and most worthy the Power and Majesty of the Catholick King That the Church of God could not be more gloriously nor meritoriously propagated than by the Conquest of England extirpating Heresie and planting the Catholick Roman Religion there This War they said would be most just and necessary considering that the Queen of England was excommunicated and persisted contumacious against the Church of Rome That she supported the King of Spains Rebels in the Netherlands annoyed the Spaniards
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
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
so noble and grave a Council and the restless and confused questions that every man all that day did vex him with yet was his countenance so far from being dejected that he often smiled in a scornful manner answering quickly to every mans questions scoffing at those that were impertinent and jesting at such as he thought had no authority to examine him Before the Council he refused to answer to such questions as he thought might discover the Plot took all the blame upon himself whereunto he said he was moved only for Religion and Conscience sake denying the King to be his lawful Sovereign because he was an Heretick As desperate were Catesby Percy and the rest who seeing the treason discover'd posted all into Warwickshire About the same hour of the night wherein Fawkes was apprehended one Grant a Gentleman having associated to himself others of his opinion all desperate Papists broke open the Stables of Mr Bennock a Rider of great Horses at Warwick Castle and carried away eight of them which belonged to divers Noblemen and Gentlemen of that Country who had put them into Mr Bennock's hand to fit them for their service and so both they which had fled from London and Grant and his Company met on that Tuesday night at Dun-Church at Sir Everard Digbies Lodgings who had made a match for a great Hunting upon Dunsmore-heath that under pretence thereof they might seize upon the Lady Elizabeth then at Comb-Abbey with the Lord Harrington but when by those which posted from London they were informed that they were discovered and pursued being struck with a great fear not knowing whither to fly they desperately began an open Rebellion pretending that they did it for the cause of Religion all the Catholicks throats being intended to be cut But the violent taking away of those Horses in the night seemed even in the eyes of the common-people to be so great a riot though they knew nothing more that it begat in their hearts a suspicion of some following Rebellion so that all sorts both great and small began to arm themselves upon this unexpected accident And old Sir Fulk Grevil of Beauchamps-Court being Deputy-Lieutenant of Warwickshire though aged and infirm yet out of his zeal for the peace and welfare of his Country presently took order to get into his hands the Ammunition and Arms of all such Gentlemen as were absent from their Houses or Popishly affected and sent such directions to the Towns about him that thereupon when these Rebels came to Ilcester a poor Smith stroke Winter who had likewise been taken by the Townsmen but that he was rescued by his Companions Yet sixteen of their followers were taken and sent to the Sheriff at Warwick and from thence to London In the mean time the rest wandred through Warwickshire being pursued by Sir Richard Verney the then High-Sheriff and from thence they went through Worcestershire into the Borders of Staffordshire their Servants and followers being about eighty men who also stole away many of them from them Thus ranging about and finding no resistance they rifled the Lord Windsors House of all the Armour Shot Powder and all other Warlike provisions but the weather being rainy and the waters somewhat high the Powder in Carriage took wet and so became unserviceable For their last refuge they betook themselves to Holbach House in Staffordshire belonging to Steven Littleton whither they were pursued by the High-Sheriff of Worcestershire who not knowing of the treason and thinking it to be only some fray or riot sent his Trumpeter unto them commanding them to render themselves to him his Majesties Minister But their Consciences witnessing what the Sheriff knew not answered that he had need of greater assistance than of those few that were with him before he could be able to command or controul them and so they prepared for resistance and having laid two pounds of the said Powder into a Platter to dry in the Chimney one coming to mend the fire threw in a Billet whereby a spark flew into the Powder whose sudden blast was so violent that though so small a quantity it blew up the roof of the House scorching the Bodies and Faces of Catesby Rookwood and Grant and some others whose Consciences now told them that God had punished them justly with Powder who with Powder would have destroyed so many Being dispirited with this accident yet like desperate men they resolved to die together set open the Gates and suffered the Sheriffs men to rush in upon them and presently both the Wrights were shot down dead Rookwood and Thomas Winter were very sorely wounded Catesby and Percy desperately fighting back to back were both shot through and slain with one Musket Bullet the rest being taken were carried Prisoners to London being all the way gazed at reviled and detested by the common people for their horrid and horrible treason and so at last they received the just guerdon of their wickedness Thus you have seen this work of darkness by the watchfulness of Gods providence detected and defeated and the contrivers of mischief faln into the Pit that they digged for others Now let us see also how cunningly they contrived the transferring the Odium of it upon the Puritans There was one Mr Pickering of Tichmarsh-Grove in Northamptonshire that was in great esteem with King James This Mr Pickering had a Horse of special note for swiftness on which he used to hunt with the King A little before the blow was given Mr Keies one of the Conspirators and Brother in Law to Mr Pickering borrowed this Horse of him and conveyed him to London upon a bloody design which was thus contrived Fawks upon the day of the fatal blow was appointed to retire himself into St. Georges Fields where this Horse was to attend him to further his escape as they made him believe so soon as the Parliament House should be blown up It was likewise contrived that Mr Pickering who was noted for a Puritan should that Morning be murthered in his Bed and secretly conveyed away as also that Fawks so soon as he came into Georges Fields to escape should be there murthered and so mangled that he could not be known whereupon it was to be bruited abroad that the Puritans had blown up the Parliament-House and the better to make the World believe it there was Mr Pickering with his choice Horse ready to make an escape but that stirred up some who seeing the hainousness of the fact and him ready to escape in detestation of so horrible a deed fell upon him and hewed him in pieces and to make it more clear there was his Horse known to be of special speed and swiftness ready to carry him away and upon this rumor a Massacre should have gone through the whole land upon the Puritans When the contrivance of this Plot was thus discovered by some of the Conspirators and Faux who was now a Prisoner in the Tower made acquainted with it whereas before
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