What was the Gunpowder Plot? Part 7

It will, moreover, be found by investigators that when exceptional stress is laid on any point by Sir E. c.o.ke, the Attorney General, a _prima facie_ case against the genuine nature of the evidence in regard of that point is thereby established. In his speech on the trial of the conspirators we find him declaring that, "If the cellar had not been hired, the mine work could hardly, or not at all, have been discovered, for the mine was neither found nor suspected until the danger was past, and the capital offenders apprehended, and by themselves, upon examination, confessed." That is to say, the government could not, though provided with information that there was a powder-mine under the Parliament House, have discovered this extraordinary piece of engineering; and moreover, after its abandonment, the traces of the excavation were so artfully hidden as to elude observation till the prisoners drew attention to them. Such a.s.sertions cannot possibly be true; but they might serve to meet the objection that no one had seen the mine.

We likewise find that in his examination of November 5th, Faukes is made to say: "He confesseth that about Christmas last [1604], he brought in the nighttime Gunpowder _to the cellar under the upper house of Parliament_," that is some three months before the cellar was hired.

Moreover, the words italicised have been added as an interlineation, apparently by Cecil himself. Evidently when this was done the mine was still undiscovered.

Yet more remarkable is the fact that it would appear to have remained undiscovered ever afterwards, and that no marks seem to have been left upon the wall which had been so roughly handled. It is certainly impossible to find any record that such traces were observed when the building was demolished, though they could scarcely have failed to attract attention and interest. On this subject we have the important evidence of Mr. William Capon, who carefully examined every detail connected with the old palace, and evidently had the opportunity of studying the foundations of the House of Lords when, in 1823, that building was removed.[188] He does, indeed, mention what he conceives to be the traces of the conspirators' work, of which he gives the following description:

"Adjoining the south end of the Cellar, or more properly the ancient Kitchen, to the west, was a small room separated only by a stone doorway, with a pointed head, and with very substantial masonry joined to the older walls.... At the North side [of this] there had been an opening, a doorway of very solid thick stonemasonry, through which was a way seemingly forced through by great violence.... In 1799 it was a.s.serted that this was always understood to have been the place where the conspirators broke into the vault which adjoined that called Guy Vaux's cellar."[189]

But against such a supposition there are three fatal objections. (1) This places the conspirators on the wrong side of the house, for they most certainly worked from the east, or river side, not from the west.[190] (2) It makes the mine above ground instead of below. (3) The conspirators never broke into the cellar at all, but hired it in the ordinary way of business.

Such considerations as the above may well make us sceptical in regard to the mine, and if this element of the story, upon which so much stress has always been laid, prove to be untrustworthy, it must needs follow that grave suspicion will be cast upon the rest.

There are, likewise, various problems in connection with the "cellar,"

especially as concerns the means of ingress to it, and its consequent privacy or publicity.

(_a_) Faukes says (November 6th, 1605) that about the middle of Lent of that year Percy caused "a new dore" to be made into it, "that he might have a neerer way out of his own house into the cellar."

This seems to imply that Percy took the cellar for his firewood when there was no convenient communication between it and his house. Moreover it is not very easy to understand how a tenant under such conditions as his was allowed at discretion to knock doors through the walls of a royal palace. Neither did the landlady say anything of this door-making, when detailing what she knew about Percy's proceedings.

(_b_) In some notes by Sir E. c.o.ke,[191] it is said: "The powder was first brought into Percy's house, and lay there in a low room new built, and could not have been conveyed into the cellar by the old door but that all the street must have seen it; and therefore he caused a new door out of his house into the cellar to be made, where before there had been a grate of iron."

This, it must be confessed, looks very like an afterthought to explain away a difficulty, but failing to do so. When the door is said to have been made, the powder was already on the premises, having been brought there in sight of the whole street and the river. It could hardly, in so small a tenement, escape the observation of the workmen,[192] while the operations of these latter in breaking through the wall would have served yet farther to attract the attention of the neighbourhood.

(_c_) We are told by Faukes and others, that either he or Percy always kept the key, and that marks were made to indicate whether anyone had entered the place in their absence.

(_d_) On the other hand, to say nothing of Winter's declaration that the confederates so arranged as to leave the cellar free for all to enter who would, Lord Salisbury informed Sir Thomas Parry[193] that the captors of Faukes entered through "another door," which clearly did not require to be opened by him; while as to the ordinary door, whichever this was, the "King's Book" itself plainly intimates, in the account of the chamberlain's visit, that Whynniard, the landlord, was able to open it when he chose.

The "other door" spoken of by Cecil, a most important feature of the chamber, is nowhere else mentioned.[194]

It appears certain that the conspirators really had a plot in hand, that they fancied themselves to be about to strike a great blow, and that by means of gunpowder; but what was the precise nature of their plans and preparations it is not so easy to determine. Farther discussion of these particulars must be deferred to a later chapter. Meanwhile, according to the accepted history, when they had stored their powder there was nothing more to do but to await the a.s.sembling of the intended victims. Parliament stood prorogued till October 3rd, and was afterwards further adjourned till the fateful 5th of November. That they might not excite suspicion, the confederates separated, most of them retiring to their country seats, and Faukes going over to Flanders.[195] In his absence Percy kept the key of the cellar, and, according to Faukes,[196]

laid in more powder and wood while he himself was absent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE POWDER PLOT. II.]

It is not easy to understand what became of the cellar during this long interval, and apparently it was left in great measure, with its compromising contents, to take care of itself, for Percy, amongst other places, went with Catesby to Bath to take the waters.[197] If the premises were of so public a nature as the testimony of Winter and others would imply, it appears impossible that they should have remained all this time sealed up, or that these astute and crafty plotters should with a light heart have ignored the probability that they would be visited and inspected. As Father Greenway observes,[198] it can hardly be supposed that the landlord[199] had not a duplicate key, while Cecil himself, in his letter to Sir Thomas Parry, plainly indicates that access to the cellar could freely be procured independently of the conspirators. We can only say that the conduct of the confederates in this particular appears to have been quite in keeping with their method of conspiring secretly as we have already seen it, and undoubtedly one more difficulty is thus opposed to the supposition that their enterprise was chiefly dangerous on account of the clandestine and dexterous manner in which it was conducted.

FOOTNOTES:

[129] The name "old House of Lords" is somewhat ambiguous, being variously applicable to three different buildings:

(i.) That here described, which continued to be used till the Irish Union, A.D. 1800.

(ii.) The "Court of Requests," or "White Hall," used from 1800 till the fire of 1834.

(iii.) The "Painted Chamber," which, having been repaired after the said fire, became the place of a.s.sembly for the Lords, as did the Court of Requests for the Commons.

The original House of Lords was demolished in 1823 by Sir John Soane, who on its site erected his Royal Gallery. (See Brayley and Britton, _History of the Palace of Westminster_.)

[130] The authority for this is the Earl of Northampton, who at Father Garnet's trial mentioned that it was so stated in ancient records.

Remains of a b.u.t.tery hatch in the south wall confirmed his a.s.sertion.

The foundations of the building were believed to date from the time of Edward the Confessor, and the style of architecture of the superstructure a.s.signed it to the early part of the thirteenth century, as likewise the "Prince's Chamber."

[131] Brayley and Britton, _History of the Palace of Westminster_, p.

421; J. T. Smith, _Antiquities of Westminster_, p. 39 (where ill.u.s.trations will be found); _Gentleman's Magazine_, July, 1800, p.

626.

[132] It was here that the death warrant of Charles I. was signed.

[133] An old print (which states that it is taken from "a painted print in the Cottonian library,") representing the two Houses a.s.sembled in presence of Queen Elizabeth, has windows on both sides. The same plate, with the figure of the sovereign alone changed, was made to do duty likewise for a Parliament of James I. By Hollar's time (1640-77) the windows had been blocked up and the tapestry hung.

[134] Cecil wrote to Cornwallis, Edmondes, and others, November 9th, 1605, "This Piercey had a bout a year and a half a goe hyred a parte of Vyniards house in the old Palace," which appears to be Mr. Hepworth Dixon's sole authority for styling the tenement "Vinegar House."

[135] See Appendix E, _Site of Percy's house_.

[136] Evidence of Mrs. Whynniard, November 7th, 1605. Epsley is evidently the same person as Hoppisley, who was examined on the 23rd of the same month.

[137] Birch, _Historical View_, p. 227.

[138] _Historie_, p. 1231.

[139] _Gunpowder Treason, Harleian Miscellany_, iii. 121.

[140] At his first examination, November 5th 1605, Faukes declared that he had not been sure the king would come to the Parliament House on that day, and that his purpose was to have blown it up whenever his Majesty was there.

[141] The agreement between Percy and Ferrers is in the Record Office (_Gunpowder Plot Book_, 1.) and is endorsed by Cecil, "The bargaine ...

for the b.l.o.o.d.y sellar." Upon this there will be more to remark later.

[142] Jardine, _Gunpowder Plot_, p. 42.

[143] The 11th of December, O. S., was at that period the shortest day, which circ.u.mstance suggested to Sir E. c.o.ke, on the trial of the conspirators, one of his characteristic facetiae; he bade his hearers note "That it was in the entring of the Sun into the Tropick of Capricorn, when they began their Mine; noting that by Mining they should descend, and by Hanging, ascend."

[144] "Gentlemen not accustomed to labour or to be pioneers."--Goodman, _Court of King James_, p. 103.

[145] "The Moles that first underwent these underminings were all grounded Schollers of the Romish Schoole, and such earnest Labourers in their Vault of Villany, that by Christmas Eve they had brought the worke under an entry, unto the Wall of the Parliament House, underpropping still as they went the Earth with their framed Timber."--Speed, _Historie_, p. 1232 (pub. 1611).

[146] In Barlow's _Gunpowder Treason_ these foundations are stated to have been three ells thick, _i.e._, eleven and a quarter feet. _Harleian Miscellany_, iii. 122.

[147] See Appendix F, _The enrolment of the Conspirators_, for the discrepancies as to dates. T. Winter (November 23rd, 1605) says that the powder was laid "in Mr. Percy's house;" Faukes, "in a low Room new builded."

[148] There is, as usual, hopeless contradiction between the two witnesses upon whom, as will be seen, we wholly depend for this portion of the story. Faukes (November 17th, 1605) makes the mining operations terminate at Candlemas. T. Winter (November 23rd) says that they went on to "near Easter" (March 31st). The date of hiring the "cellar," was about Lady Day (March 25th).

[149] The buildings of the dissolved College of St. Stephen, comprising those around the House of Lords, were granted by Edward VI. to Sir Ralph Lane. They reverted to the crown under Elizabeth, and were appropriated as residences for the auditors and tellers of the Exchequer. The locality became so populous that in 1606 it was forbidden to erect more houses.

[150] Jardine, _Gunpowder Plot_, p. 48.

[151] November 17th, 1605.