On Saturday, the 26th of October, ten days before the intended meeting of
Parliament,[A] Lord Mounteagle, we are told, unexpectedly and without any
apparent reason or previous notice, directed a supper to be prepared at
his mansion at Hoxton, where he had not been for more than a twelve-month
before that date.
[Footnote A: Parliament had been prorogued from the 3rd of October to the
5th of November. Lord Mounteagle was one of the Commissioners.
The “_Confession_” by Thomas Winter, which I regard as genuine, I have
also drawn upon freely in my relation of facts.——See Appendix.]
It will be well, however, to relate the history of what occurred in the
exact words provided for us in a work published by King James’s printer,
and put forth as “the authorised version” of the facts that it recorded.
The work bears the title——“_A Discourse of the late intended Treason_,”
anno 1605. “_The Discourse_” says:——“The Lord Mounteagle, sonne and heire
to the Lord Morley, being in his own lodging ready to go to supper at
seven of the clock at night one of his footmen whom he had sent of an
errand over the streete was met by an unknown man of a reasonable tall
personage[6] who delivered him a Letter charging him to put it in my Lord
his Master’s hands, which my Lord no sooner received but that having
broken it up and perceiving the same to be of an unknown and somewhat
unlegible hand, and without either date or subscription, did call one of
his men unto him for helping him to read it. But no sooner did he conceive
the strange contents thereof, although he was somewhat perplexed what
construction to make of it ... yet did he as a most dutifull and loyall
subject conclude not to conceal it, whatever might come of it. Whereupon
notwithstanding the latenesse and darknesse of the night in that season of
the year, he presently repaired to his Majesties palace at Whitehall and
there delivered the same to the Earle of Salisbury his majesties
principall secretarie.”
The Letter was as follows:——
“My lord out of the loue i beare yowe to some of youere frends i haue a
caer of youer preseruacion therfor i would aduyse yowe as yowe tender
youer lyf to deuys some exscuse to shift of youer attendance at this
parleament for god and man hath concurred to punishe the wickednes of this
tyme and thinke not slightlye of this aduertisment but retyere youre self
into youre contri wheare yowe maye expect the euent in safti for
thowghe[7] theare be no apparance of anni stir yet i saye they shall
receyue a terrible blowe this parleament and yet they shall not sei who
hurts them this councel is not to be contemned because it maye do yowe
good and can do yowe no harme for the dangere is passed as soon as yowe
have burnt the letter and i hope god will give yowe the grace to mak good
use of it to whose holy proteccion i comend yowe.”
(Addressed on the back) to “the ryght honorable the lord mouteagle.”
The full name of the member of Lord Mounteagle’s household who read the
Letter to Lord Mounteagle, we learn, was Thomas Ward.[8]
Ward was acquainted with Thomas Winter, one of the principal Gunpowder
plotters; for Winter himself had formerly been in Mounteagle’s service,
and at the time of the Plot was almost certainly on amicable terms with
the young nobleman.
On the 27th of October, the day following the delivery of the Letter,
_Thomas Ward came to Thomas Winter_ (being Sunday at night) and told him
that a Letter had been given to Lord Mounteagle, which the latter
presently had carried to Robert Cecil Earl of Salisbury.——“_Winter’s
Confession._”
Winter, thereupon, the next day, Monday, the 28th October, went to a house
called White Webbs, not far from Lord Salisbury’s mansion Theobalds.
White Webbs was a lone and (then) half-timbered dwelling, “with many trap
doors and passages,” surrounded by woods, near Enfield Chase, ten miles
north of Westminster.
At this secluded spot Thomas Winter had speech with Catesby, the
arch-conspirator, “assuring him withal that the matter was disclosed and
wishing him in anywise to forsake his country.”——“_Winter’s Confession._”
Catesby told Winter, “he would see further as yet and resolved to send Mr.
Fawkes to try the uttermost protesting if the part belonged to himself he
would try the same adventure.”——“_Winter’s Confession._”
On Wednesday, the 30th October, from White Webbs, “Mr. Fawkes,” as Thomas
Winter styles him, went to the cellar under the House of Lords, where
thirty-six barrels of powder, wood, and coal were stored in readiness for
the bloody slaughter purposed for November the Fifth.
Fawkes returned to White Webbs at night, at which the conspirators “were
very glad.” Fawkes had found in the cellar his “private marks” all
undisturbed.
“The next day after the delivery of the Letter,” says Stowe (though as a
fact it was probably five days after the delivery of the momentous
document, namely, on the following Thursday), _this self-same “Thomas
Winter told Christopher Wright”_——a subordinate conspirator,——“that he
(Winter) understood an obscure letter had been delivered to Lord
Mounteagle, who had conveyed it to Salisbury.”[9]
_Hence, most probably, either Thomas Winter went in search of Christopher
Wright to afford him this piece of information; or Wright went in search
of Winter to obtain it._
At about five o’clock in the morning of Tuesday, November, the Fifth,
about five hours after Fawkes’ apprehension by Sir Thomas Knevet and his
men,[10] the said Christopher Wright went to the chamber of the said
Thomas Winter and told him that a nobleman (_i.e._, the Earl of Worcester,
Master of the Horse) “had called (_i.e._, summoned) the Lord Mounteagle,
saying, ‘Rise and come along to Essex House,[11] for I am going to call up
my Lord of Northumberland,’ saying withal, ‘the matter is
discovered.’”——“_Winter’s Confession._”
Of this conspirator, Christopher Wright, it is said,[12] that “he was the
first to ascertain that the Plot was discovered.” Probably this refers to
the information he (Christopher Wright) obtained as the upshot of his
interview with Winter on (probably) Thursday, the 31st October.
Christopher Wright was, likewise, the first to announce the apprehension
of Fawkes on the morning of the 5th of November.
It is also further said of Christopher Wright by one[13] who wrote during
the last century, that “He advised that each of the conspirators should
betake himself to flight in a different direction from his companions.
Had this been followed several of them would have probably succeeded in
making their escape to the continent. The conspirators, however, adopted
another course, which issued in their discomfiture in Staffordshire, where
Christopher Wright was also killed.”