The
Gunpowder
Plot, and
Thomas
Percy.

The journey of Thomas Percy to Scotland, the welcome accorded to him at Holyrood, and the promises alleged to have been made to him by James, have been already dwelt upon. Upon his shoulders and those of Northumberland the whole responsibility rested for the attitude which the Catholics adopted towards the Scottish King up to the time of his accession. Indeed by his co-religionists Percy was held responsible not only for the truth of his own statements, but for the Earl's good faith as well. Therefore when James proved false, it was but natural that an outcry should arise from the Romanists (and particularly from Garnet and the old leaders, whose opposition had been overcome by Percy's arguments) that they had been sold by Northumberland and his cousin. The accusation was a most unjust one in the Earl's case, for if ever a man had acted disinterestedly and with good intention it was he. Thomas Percy, too, had been clearly duped by the King; and the shameful and undeserved position in which he found himself wrought him to a pitch of ungovernable fury. In his reckless anger, he even dared to present a remonstrance to the King, calling upon him to be true to his plighted word; an exploit for which, singularly enough, he was allowed to go unpunished. No answer was returned to this appeal; and the conservative Catholics, still looking with suspicion upon Percy, failed to summon him to their councils. This cruel buffet of fortune-unjust treatment from his own people-extinguished the last glimmer of prudence in his mind. He turned aside from his former friends, and enlisted himself among that small minority of rabid fanatics already spoken of as forming the most advanced wing of the English Catholics. These extremists, desperadoes and madmen for the most part, had pledged themselves to stop at nothing save the complete supremacy of the Catholic faith in England. By the moderate partythose who asked merely for liberty of conscience-the fanatical element was shunned and condemned; but although its numbers were few, it made up for this lack

by that extraordinary strength of will peculiar to religious enthusiasts.

We have two contemporary descriptions of Thomas Percy's appearance. His fellow-conspirator, the priest Greenway, states that Percy was forty-five years of age, but looked older through premature greyness. "In figure," says the same authority, he was " tall and handsome, his eyes large and lively, and the expression of his countenance pleasing, tho' grave; and, notwithstanding the boldness of his character, his manners 1 gentle and quiet." The Proclamation of a reward for his capture is as follows:-" The said Percy is a tall man with a great broad beard, a good face, and hair, mingled with white hairs, but the head more white than his beard. He stoopeth somewhat in the shoulders, is well coloured in the face, long-footed, and small-legged." The well-known picture "from life" of the conspirators in council, represents Percy as by no means the tallest among them, with a keen face, and up-curled moustaches.

The

Plot.

Even the fanatics, among whom Percy now found himself, had at first no intention of resorting to such terrible measures as those which they afterwards Gunpowder adopted. They hoped to terrorise James by threats of war from abroad, and agents were despatched to the Catholic Courts of Europe with vague schemes of this kind. There were also projects for the V release of Arabella Stuart, and for the capture of the Prince of Wales. The bloody Lancashire Assizes of 1604 and their results, however, filled Percy and his fellows with a lust for immediate and awful revenge. At these assizes six Catholic priests had been tried and executed under the penal statute known as "27 Elizabeth"; and one of the judges had laid it down as law that any layman hearing mass or taking part in Romanist sacraments was guilty of treason-felony. An ancient gentleman of Lancashire, Pound by name, who protested against this decision, was

1 Father Greenway's MSS.

Gunpowder Plot Book," Original State Papers, Record Office.

dragged before the Star Chamber,1 fined £1000, pilloried, and committed to the Fleet Prison "at the King's pleasure." Moderate Catholics throughout the realm realised that their high hopes were at an end; and prepared themselves to bear with fortitude a continuance of the Elizabethan persecution. Not so the frenzied band that looked to Robert Catesby as its chief. These men-they were not more than seven-resolved to strike a blow which, they madly fancied, would paralyse the Protestant power.

2

Once embarked with Catesby and Thomas Winter in their atrocious conspiracy, Percy became the most ardent and impatient of the seven. He had been recently admitted, through Northumberland's influence, to a position in the corps of Gentlemen Pensioners; and this enabled him to supply his partners with news of the Court. He also brought into the league a valuable recruit in the person of his brother-in-law, John Wright, formerly a follower of Essex, and renowned as "the best swordsman of his time in England." "About the middle of Easter Term (1605)" according to Speed, “Thomas Percy, as hote as Hotspur himself, came puffing to Catesby's lodging in Lambeth, and asked 'Shall we always be talking, and never doe anything?'" The "lodging in Lambeth" was a desolate house in Lambeth marshes, which was for months the principal meeting-place of the plotters.

It was at length determined to attempt the destruction of the King, Lords and Commons at one stroke by means of gunpowder, large stores of which were accordingly purchased abroad and conveyed to England. Meanwhile the number of those in the dreadful secret had been increased. Guido Fawkes (a soldier of fortune, born of good family in Yorkshire), Robert Winter, Keyes, and

1 During Mr. Pound's examination he was attacked by Coke, Cecil, Chief Justice Popham, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, with extraordinary vindictiveness.

2 Percy had married Wright's sister (see Genealogy, Table III.). Christopher Wright, brother of John, subsequently joined the plot at Percy's instigation. Both brothers had been subjected to fines and imprisonment as Romanists.

3 Speed's Chronicle.