The Gunpowder Plot: Terror And Faith In 1605 by Fraser Antonia

Author:Fraser, Antonia [Fraser, Antonia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780297857938
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2010-06-23T23:00:00+00:00

The government’s first warrant for arrest was issued in the name of Thomas Percy. He was described as a tall man with stooping shoulders, having ‘a great broad beard’ grizzled with white, and near-white hair: ‘privy to one of the most horrible Treasons that ever was contrived’. It was stated to be essential ‘to keep him alive’ so that the rest of the conspirators could be discovered.17 But Percy was mistakenly sought at Essex House rather than at his own lodging. It was then supposed that he had headed back to the north.

By this time the hubbub and commotion in the capital was swelling – not only in the Westminster area where the arrest had been made (and ‘John Johnson’ was being held in the King’s chamber) but also in the Strand neighbourhood of the great lords’ houses. These men were being turned out of their beds to fulfil their public responsibilities in a time of crisis. Thus Kit Wright overheard Lord Worcester, a Councillor, summoning Monteagle to go with him and ‘call up’ Northumberland. He rushed round to Tom Wintour at the Duck and Drake, crying ‘the matter is discovered’. Wintour ordered him to make a further check and, when the hue and cry at Essex House was confirmed, correctly deduced that Percy was the man they were seeking. Wintour then told Kit Wright to hasten to Percy’s lodging and ‘bid him begone’. According to his confession, Tom Wintour added: ‘I will stay and see the uttermost.’18

As news of the calamity which had befallen Guido spread among the conspirators still in London, a desperate dispersal commenced. Men fled on sweating horses, urged on by their panic-ridden masters. Fresh mounts would be needed along the way for in fleet horsemanship lay their only hope of eluding their pursuers. Kit Wright and Thomas Percy now went together, Percy dramatically saying to a passing servant as he went: ‘I am undone.’ At daylight Robert Keyes took to his horse. At this point Rookwood and Tom Wintour were the only conspirators left in London.* Rookwood was the next to depart. He set out on an epic ride, thanks to his famous horsemanship and the unparalleled quality of his steeds he had arranged along the way (he managed to ride thirty miles in two hours on one horse: an amazing feat for both man and animal). As a result he overtook Keyes, who had only got as far as Highgate, and then Kit Wright and Percy at Little Brickhill, north of Dunstable in Bedfordshire. Finally he caught up with Catesby, Jack Wright and Bates further along the same road. It was thus Rookwood who broke the news of the disaster to Catesby, the man who had planned it all.

In the meantime Catesby and Jack Wright had had an encounter of their own, with a recusant who was returning from London called Henry Huddlestone. The young man’s father lived at Sawston Hall near Cambridge, but Henry, who was related to the Vaux family, had installed his heavily pregnant wife at one of their houses near Harrowden.

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