"I meant to fire it by a match, eight or nine inches long; as soon as I had set it I should have fled for mine own safety. If I had been in the cellar when you took me, I would at once have blown up all." "Keep a strong guard on this caitiff," said Sir Thomas, "and you, Doubleday, see to the cellar. I will to his Majesty." As he left Percy's house, midnight tolled out on the clock of the Abbey. The fifth of November had begun. Sir Thomas Knevet left his prisoner under guard, and returned to the King. Late as it was, his Majesty had not retired. The members of the Council who were at hand--for some always slept in the Palace--were called in, the gates secured, a cordon of troops set across King Street, and another at Charing Cross. The remainder of the Council in Town had been sent for, and as soon as they arrived, about one o'clock a.m., the King sat at their head in his bedchamber, and Fawkes was brought in and placed before them. Nothing quelled the spirit of Guy Fawkes. The councillors were eager, impatient, vehement: he was calm as a summer eve, cool as the midnight snow. To their hurried queries he returned straightforward, unabashed, imperturbable answers, still keeping up his character of an ignorant rustic. "Tell us, fellow, why that store of gunpowder was laid in?" "To blow up the Parliament House," said Fawkes. "When should it have been executed?" "To-morrow, when the King had come, and the Upper House was sitting." "Of whom?" "Of myself." "How knew you that the King would come?" "Only by report, and the making ready his barge." "And for what cause?" "For the advancement of the Catholic religion." "You are a Papist?" "Ay." "And wherefore would you be a party to the destruction of so many of your own religion?" "We meant principally to have respected our own safety, and would have prayed for them." "Your name and calling?" "John Johnson, and Mr Percy's man." "Was your master a party to this treason?" "You can ask him when you see him." "Who were your accomplices?" Then the dark eyes shot forth fire. "You would have me betray my friends!" said Guy Fawkes. "The giving warning to one hath overthrown us all." It was found impossible to obtain any further information from Fawkes. Neither fear nor coaxing would induce him to name his accomplices. He was sent to the Tower, which he entered by Traitor's Gate. "Well, to be sure! Whatten a thingcum's [what sort of a thing] this? Has summat happened sin' we went to bed? Rachel! I say, Rachel, lass! come here." Rachel heard the exclamation when Charity opened the front door, and came running with a wooden spoon in her hand. "See thou, lass! dost thou see all them soldiers drawn right across th' street? Look, they're turning folks back 'at goes up, and willn't let 'em pass. There's summat up, for sure! What is it, thinkst thou?"