The place where the seizure was made is described as a hayloft over a deserted stable with a step-ladder leading from the stable to the loft above, with two apertures in the floor of the loft, opening on the racks in the stable below; opening from the loft were two small inner rooms. On the evening of the 23rd of February, 1820, the conspirators were assembled in this stable, where they were arming themselves for the bloody work they had planned, when the police, aided by a party of the Coldstream Guards under Lieut. Fitzclarence, broke in upon them. Police-officers Ruthven, Ellice, and Smithers, were the first to mount the ladder, and enter the loft. 'There were about five-and-twenty men in the room, eating bread and cheese, and drinking porter, or selecting arms from a long carpenter's bench which stood close by the wall. Just at that juncture, Thistlewood, hearing a noise, and some one calling, "Hallo! Show a light!" took a candle, and looked down the stairs to see who was coming, and, on seeing that there was a surprise, he put the candle back on the bench, seized a sword, and with three or four others retreated stealthily to the further of the inner rooms--the one that had a window looking out into Cato Street. At that moment one of the men seized below called out to warn his comrades, "Look out there above!" 'At the same time, two of the constables, at first almost unnoticed, appeared at the top of the ladder, and presenting their pistols, said, "Hallo, is anybody in the room? Here's a pretty nest of you!" 'Then another of the patrol cried, "We are officers; seize their arms." 'And a third, "Gentlemen, we have got a warrant to apprehend you all, and as such we hope you will go peaceably." 'Just then Smithers, distrusting further parley, and believing, in his staunch way, in promptitude, before the conspirators could discover the scantiness of the assailing numbers, or could muster courage to use their arms, cried, "Let me come forward," and pushed towards the door of the inner room, where Thistlewood stood thrusting with a very long sword. The leader of the conspirators instantly rushed forward, and struck Smithers through his right side. The constable threw up his hands, his head fell back, he staggered against Ruthven, cried, "O my God, I am done!" and fell dead near the opening of the stairs. Ellice held up his staff at Thistlewood, and threatened to fire with the pistol in his right hand, unless he instantly surrendered. The lights were immediately dashed out, and a voice cried in the darkness, "Kill the ---- at once! Throw them down-stairs! Kill them!" 'Then there were twenty or thirty pistol-shots fired, and a tremendous headlong rush was made at the stairs, driving the Bow Street men backwards; the conspirators leaping down into the manger through the holes in the floor, or by the window, others firing at the officers on the stairs, or up through the manger, all making for the archway in John Street.'[2]