[307] See Goodman's remarks on this subject (_Court of King James_, i. 106). The author of the _Politician's Catechism_ writes: "It is very certaine that Percy and Catesby might have been taken alive, when they were killed, but Cecil knew full well that these two unfortunate Gentlemen would have related the story lesse to his owne advantage, than himself caused it to be published: therefore they were dispatched when they might have been made prisoners, having no other weapons, offensive or defensive, but their swords." [308] About the death of the Wrights there are extraordinary contradictions. In the "original" of his famous confession T. Winter says: "The next shot was the elder Wright, stone dead; after him the younger Mr. Wright." In _Mischeefes Mystery_ we read that Percy and Catesby were killed "with a gunne," the two Wrights "with Halberts." The day after the attack, November 9th, Sir Edward Leigh wrote to the Council, that the Wrights were not slain, as reputed, but wounded. Not till the 13th was their death certified by Sir Richard Walsh. [309] _Court of King James_, i. 106. [310] Nichols, _Progresses of King James I._, i. 588. [311] MS., f. 70, b. [312] Cecil writing to the ambassadors, November 9th, mentions in a postscript the fate of the rebels. [313] They were slain by two balls from the same musket. [314] Warrant, P.R.O. [315] Father Gerard mentions this circumstance (_Narrative_, p. 110). [316] This point is well developed in the recent _Life of a Conspirator_, pp. 120-126. [317] _Dom. James I._ xvi. 97. [318] _Dom. James I._, March 4th, 1605-6. [319] _Gunpowder Plot Book_, 242. [320] The strange story of a powder-plot under Elizabeth is variously told. According to one of the mysterious confessions attributed to Faukes, which have disappeared from the State Papers, Owen told him in Flanders that one Thomas Morgan had proposed to blow up her majesty (Abbot, _Antilogia_, 137). The _Memorial to Protestants_ by Bishop Kennet (1713) says that the man's name was Moody, who wanted the French ambassador to subsidise him. The idea was to place a 20 lb. bag of powder under the queen's bed, and explode it in the middle of the night, but how this was to be managed is not explained. [321] Winwood, _Memorials_, ii. 189. [322] Wood to Salisbury, December 23rd, 1605. [323] _Court of King James_, i. 107. [324] _Collection_, vol. ii. 15. [325] William, second earl (born 1591, died 1668), son of the minister of James I. [326] Speaker of the Long Parliament. [327] Edward Cecil, Viscount Wimbledon, third son of Thomas, first Earl of Exeter (the elder brother of Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury), died 1638. [328] Peter Vowell, a Protestant, executed with Colonel John Gerard for an alleged plot against Cromwell, July 10th, 1654.