Page:A history of the gunpowder plot-The conspiracy and its agents (1904).djvu/102

82 directed the Lieutenant that he was to be tortured.

Those of the conspirators left in the metropolis were not long in discovering that all was lost, for soon after dawn the streets were filled with people talking of the plot. Horror and dismay were depicted on every countenance, and it was rumoured that a general rising of the Roman Catholics was imminent. The Spanish Ambassador's house was mobbed. The train-bands were called out, and the general alarm reminded the Londoners of the preparations made in 1588, against the coming of the Armada. 'Not only that night' writes the Venetian Ambassador, 'but all next day, the citizens were kept under arms.'

The conspirators, quickly realizing that there was no time to be wasted, made all haste to be gone. Percy and Christopher Wright rode off first, then Keyes; then Rookewood, whose stud now came in useful, followed, having relays of horses waiting for him between London and Dunchurch. Riding at a most extraordinary rate of speed, he soon overtook and passed Keyes on the road; and at Brickhill, Bucks, came up with Catesby and John Wright, and