"And thou hast fashioned idols of thine own--
Idols of gold, of silver, and of stone:
To them hast bowed the knee, and breathed the breath,
And they must help thee in the hour of death."
Sir Edwin Arnold.
While the discomfited conspirators were thus speeding on their weary
way, in hope of yet gathering recruits enough to raise the standard of
rebellion in the interests of that Church on whose behalf they counted
everything lawful, Lord Harrington, at Combe Abbey, heard the news, and
hurried the little Princess off to Coventry, as a safer place than his
own house, for Coventry was determinately Protestant and loyal.
Elizabeth, afterwards well known as the Queen of Bohemia, was deeply
impressed and horrified with the terrible discovery.
"What sort of a queen should I have been," said the true-hearted child,
"when I had won to my throne through the blood of my father and my
brothers? Thanked be God that it was not so!"
The metropolis was passing through a ferment of delight, amazement, and
activity. Everywhere in the streets bonfires were blazing,--the first
of those Gunpowder Plot bonfires which every fifth of November has seen
after them.
A watch was set on Percy's house in Holborn, and his wife was guarded.
A priest named Roberts was taken in the house. Mrs Martha Percy
appears to have been a fitting mate for a conspirator. She put on an
affectation of the sublimest innocence. How should she know anything?
she who lived so quietly, and was entirely occupied in teaching her own
and other children. As to her husband, she had not seen him since
Midsummer. He was attendant on my Lord of Northumberland, and lodged,
as she supposed, in his house. Having thus lulled to sleep the
suspicions of those set to watch her, the next morning Mrs Percy was
not to be found. Whether she slipped through a door, or climbed out of
a window, or went up the chimney on a broomstick, there was no evidence
to show; but three days later she made her appearance at Norbrook House
in Warwickshire, the residence of her eldest brother, John Wright, and
was affectionately received by her sister-in-law.
At Westminster, Lord Chief-Justice Popham and Sir Edward Coke sat in
judicial ermine, and summoned before them two prisoners--Gideon Gibbons
the porter, and the clever gentleman who called himself John Johnson,
and whose real name was Guy Fawkes.
Gibbons was soon disposed of, for he was as innocent as he seemed to be.
All that he could say was that he had been hired, in his usual way of
business, with two other porters, to carry three thousand billets of
wood to the Parliament House, and that Mr Percy's servant Johnson had
stacked them in the cellar. The key of the house next door had been at
times left in charge of his wife. So much he knew, and no more.
The examination of "John Johnson" was another matter. The King himself
had drawn up a paper containing questions to be put to him, and he
answered these and all others with an appearance of perfect frankness
and wish to conceal nothing. His replies were in reality a mixture of
truth and falsehood, which was afterwards proved.