A remarkable circumstance is related of the hopes and intentions of the Spaniards, in the event of success in the _Armada_. A Spanish officer, who was taken prisoner, was examined before the privy council. He confessed that their object in coming was to subjugate the nation to the yoke of Spain, and the church to that of the pope. He was asked by some of the lords what they intended to do with the _Catholics_, as some must necessarily have fallen: to which question he promptly replied, that they meant to send them directly to _heaven_, even as they should have sent the _heretics_ to _hell_. This statement rests on the authority of the chaplain to the army. It was revealed to him in order that he might publish it the next day, in his sermon, to the troops. He states, that by commandment of the council he did publish it to the army. In those days, there were no _newspapers_: nor was it then so easy to communicate intelligence by _placards_ or _bills_. We find, therefore, that the pulpit was often made a vehicle for publishing the common news of the day. At a subsequent period, during the commotions between Charles I. and his Parliament, when the latter obtained possession of most of the pulpits, they were the only channels through which many of the people were made acquainted with the progress of the war. Whatever had occurred during the week was published to the people, from the pulpit, on the Sunday[6]. [Footnote 6: For a description of the proceedings of the Parliamentary divines in publishing the _news_ of the day from the pulpits during the civil war, the reader is referred to my former work, _A History of the English Episcopacy from 1640 to 1660_.] King James, therefore, succeeded to the English crown at a period when the pope and the papal sovereigns entertained the most sanguine hopes of re-establishing popery in this country, and when numbers of Jesuits and their disciples were ready to execute any treason which might be concocted. CHAPTER II. SKETCHES OF THE CONSPIRATORS. The persons actually engaged in this atrocious deed were few in number: at the outset, indeed, very few: but the design was gradually revealed to others, though even when the discovery actually took place, the number was comparatively small. That there was a general belief among the Romanist body, that some great and effective blow would be struck, is a fact which I need not attempt to prove, since it is so well known, that no doubt can be entertained on the subject: but how the design was to be carried into effect was a secret to the great body of the Roman Catholics. The conspirators were thirteen in number. Their names were as follows:— Robert Catesby, Robert Winter, Thomas Percy, Thomas Winter, John Wright, Christopher Wright, Everard Digby, Knt., Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham, John Grant, Robert Keys, Guy Fawkes, And Bates, the servant of Catesby.