The band of conspirators, with the very few friends who chose to stay with them, then held a council of war; they were "prepared to stand in Armes and raise rebellion,"[276] and they determined to start at once on their journey, so as to enlist Mr Talbot to their support, as early as possible on the morrow, and give him the whole day to rally his numerous retainers round the standard of the little army of traitors and would-be murderers. [276] Stow's _Annales_, p. 880. Although five of the party had just ridden eighty miles at considerable speed, they swung themselves into the saddle again for a long night's march. Even if the whole hunting-party had remained there would not have been a large body of horsemen; in all the number present at Dunchurch was only eighty;[277] but some of the friends who had refused to have anything to do with the expedition were influential men, who could soon have raised substantial troops, even from among their own retainers. The party that actually started from Dunchurch under the command of the conspirators, according to Sir Everard Digby,[278] "were not above fiftie horse." [277] Examination of J. Fowes, S. P. Dom. James I., Vol. xvi. n. 19. Letter enclosed from the Sheriff and Justices of Warwickshire. [278] S. P. Dom. James I., G. P. Bk., Part II. n. 135. H. It was a wretched little cavalcade: if it had anything military about it, it was more of a recruiting party than an army, and its stealthy creeping forth from the inn, that November night, in darkness and dejection, was very different from the triumphant dash of the entire "hunting-party" upon Combe Abbey, to seize the Princess Elizabeth and take her from the keeping of Lord Harington, which had been laid down in the programme. The discovery of the plot, the arrest of Fawkes, and the seizure of the gunpowder was bad enough; and now, the refusal of the trusted, influential, and powerful Catholic landowners who had been assembled at Dunchurch to have hand or part in what they considered a detestable rebellion, added ten-fold to the disappointment of Sir Everard and his companions. The road of the rebels lay through Warwick, and it was remembered that there, in the stable of a poor horse-breaker of cavalry re-mounts, they would be able to supply themselves with fresh horses. Even two of the leading conspirators--I wish I could say that Sir Everard Digby had been one of them--winced at this act of felony! Rookwood, as he subsequently admitted in examination,[279] "meant not to adventure himself in stealing any" horses, as he had already fifteen or sixteen; and Robert Winter[280] tried to persuade Catesby "to let it alone, alleging that it would make a great uproar in the country, and that once done," they "might not rest anywhere, the country would so rise about" them. [279] Jardine, p. 111, footnote. [280] S. P., Robert Winter's Confession, 21 Jan, 1605-6. Catesby's reply was ominous. "Some of us may not look back."