Into this vault Johnson had, at sundry times, very privately
conveyed a great quantity of powder, and therewith filled two
hogsheads and some thirty-two small barrels; all which he had
cunningly covered with great store of billets and faggots, and on
Tuesday[20] at midnight, as he was busy to prepare the things for
execution was apprehended in the place itself with a false lantern,
booted and spurred.[21]
There is not much knowledge here beyond what Salisbury had learnt from
Fawkes's own statement with all its deceptions. Nor, if there had been
any such knowledge, was it in any way revealed by the actions of the
Government on the 5th or on the morning of the 6th. On the 5th a
proclamation was issued for the apprehension of Percy alone.[22] On the
same day Archbishop Bancroft forwarded to Salisbury a story, afterward
known to be untrue, that Percy had been seen riding towards Croydon;
whilst Popham sent another untrue story that he had been seen riding
towards Gravesend.[23] A letter from Waad, the Lieutenant of the Tower,
of the same date, revealed the truth that Percy had escaped northwards.
Of course, Percy's house was searched for papers, but those discovered
were of singularly little interest, and bore no relation to the
plot.[24] An examination of a servant of Ambrose Rokewood, a Catholic
gentleman afterwards known to have been involved in the plot, and of the
landlady of the house in London in which Rokewood had been lodging,
brought out the names of persons who had been in his company, some of
whom were afterwards found to be amongst the conspirators; but there was
nothing in these examinations to connect them with the plot, and there
is no reason to suppose that they were prompted by anything more than a
notion that it would generally be worth while to trace the movements of
a noted Catholic gentleman. On the same day a letter from Chief Justice
Popham shows that inquiries were being directed into the movements of
other Catholics, and amongst them Christopher Wright, Keyes, and Winter;
but the tone of the letter shows that Popham was merely acting upon
general suspicion, and had no special information on which to work.[25]
Up to the morning of November 6th, the action of Government was that of
men feeling in the dark, so far as anything not revealed by Fawkes was
concerned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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