The sheriff promised to intercede with his majesty in their favour, on the condition of their surrendering themselves, being unacquainted with their treason. Several proclamations had been sent into the country after the conspirators, in which the necessity of preserving Percy alive was strongly urged. But in those days a hundred miles were not soon travelled over. It is stated by contemporary authorities that the roads were very bad at the time; while another reason assigned for the slow travelling of the messengers, who had carried the proclamations, is the shortness of the days. It appears that travelling by night at that time was never contemplated. Thus on the third day after the discovery of the treason—the day on which the conspirators met at Holbeach—the authorities in the counties, in which the traitors were assembled, had received no tidings even of the existence of a plot. While they were occupied in making their preparations in the house, a spark of fire dropped on about two pounds of gunpowder, which had been laid on a plate near the chimney, for the purpose of being dried. One of the party chanced to throw a log of wood on the fire; this raised the sparks, one of which fell on the powder, causing an explosion, by which the roof of the house was blown off, and the persons of Catesby, Rookwood, and Grant blackened and scorched. It was remarkable that a bag of gunpowder, of considerable size, which was lying in the room at the time of the explosion, was blown into the court-yard without being ignited, or none of the conspirators could have survived, and thus the whole of the plot would have been for ever enveloped in mystery. Catesby, Rookwood, and Grant were partly disabled by the explosion, “so bearing in their bodies,” says Fuller, “not στιγματα, _the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ_, but the print of their own impieties.” As the house had caught fire it was deemed necessary to open the doors and attempt to escape; but when the bars of the outer gates were removed to permit the conspirators to rush forth, the sheriff’s men rushed in, so that escape was impossible. The battle now raged in the court-yard of the house with great violence. Catesby and Percy placed themselves back to back, and fought, though the former had been partly disabled by the explosion, with desperate courage. One of the sheriff’s men levelled his piece across a wall, taking deliberate aim at Catesby and Percy, both of whom fell by the same ball, the former dead on the spot, and the latter mortally wounded[16]. The two Wrights also were slain, during the encounter in the court of Littleton’s house; Rookwood and one of the Winters were wounded; and the rest were taken prisoners. [Footnote 16: “Never,” says Fuller, “were two bad men’s deaths more generally lamented of all good men: only on this account, that they lived no longer to be forced to a further discovery of their secret associates.”—Book x. 36.]