What was the Gunpowder Plot? The Traditional Story Tested by Original EvidenceGerard, John
History
What was the Gunpowder Plot? The Traditional Story Tested by Original Evidence
Gerard, John
Gunpowder Plot, 1605
In the portion here exhibited, King James is seen on his throne with
Lords and Commons before him. Under the floor is a diminutive figure of
Faukes with an ample store of barrels. At the bottom, in the left hand
corner, some of the conspirators receive the sacrament from Father
Gerard: on the right they are executed. On a lunette are the thirteen
conspirators, with the arch-traitor Garnet in the centre, the band being
described as "The Pope's Saltpeeter Saints." Within the lunette are the
Jesuits in Hell.
_The Powder Plot. IV._ (p. 227).
This is the portion on the left of a composite picture [British Museum,
_Political and Personal Satires_, 63], on the right being represented
the catastrophe known as the "Blackfriars Downfall." On Sunday, October
26th, 1623, many Catholics having assembled in an upper room of the
French ambassador's house, in Blackfriars, to hear a sermon from the
Jesuit, Father Drury, the floor collapsed, and many, including the
preacher, were killed. As October 26th, O.S., corresponded to November
5th, N.S., it was ingeniously discovered that the accident was meant to
signalize Gunpowder Plot day, though this fell on November 5th, O.S., or
November 15th, N.S.
In our illustration the Parliament House is represented by a nondescript
edifice, the wall of which is partially removed, showing King James and
some of the Peers. An oven-like vault beneath represents the "cellar,"
well stored with barrels, which Faukes is preparing to light with a
torch fanned by a crowned fiend with a pair of bellows. A company of
halberdiers approaches under the guidance of an angel. In the background
is a royal funeral procession.
A Latin inscription is attached which runs thus:
"Anno 1623, Quinto Novembris, eo scripto die quo Angliæ
Parliamentum, a^o 1605, proditione et insidiis Jesuitarum, pulvere
nitreo inflammari et in æthera spargi debuit, Jesuitarum conventus
Londini, ... ad missam et conciones audiendas congregatus, fatali
providentia, ædium ruina præcipitatus et dissipatus est, oppressis
centum et plus totidem vulneratis.
Loiolides sanctos efflare volebat ad astra;
Astra repercutiunt fulmine Loiolidem.
Loiolides, sine te penetrabit astra fidelis:
Tu fato ad Stygias præcipitaris aquas."
_The Powder Plot. V._ (p. 229).
This is an edition of Samuel Ward's print described above, improved and
embellished by a "Transmariner" in 1689. [British Museum, _Political and
Personal Satires_, i. 43.]
The tent in which the council table stands is ornamented at the four
corners with figures of a wolf, a parrot, an owl, and a dragon: a
cockatrice is on the table; on the top lie a gun, a sword, and a brace
of pistols. A demon, bearing behind him a Papal Bull, accompanies
Faukes, beneath whose lantern, as a play on his name, is written _Fax_.
At the door of the cellar are scorpions and a serpent. On the top of the
barrels within are seen the "yron barres," placed there to make the
breach the greater.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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