Page:Guy Fawkes, or, The history of the gunpowder plot.pdf/12

12 confederates, according to a previous agreement, assembled in the house about the 11th of December, and a mine was immediately commenced. The stone wall, however, which separated them from the Parliament House, being found three yards in thickness, Keyes and the younger brother of John Wright (who was enlisted as the others had been) were called in to assist, and the seven men were thus occupied until Christmas-eve without their ever appearing in the upper part of the house. ‘All which seven,’ says Fawkes in his examination, ‘were gentlemen of name and blood; and not any was employed in or about this action, no, not so much as in digging and mining, that was not a gentleman. And while the others wrought, I stood as sentinel to descry any man that came near; and when any person came near the place, upon warning given by me, they ceased until they had again notice from me to proceed; and we seven lay in the house, and had shot and powder, and we all resolved to die in that place before wo yielded or were taken.'

During their laborious employment, they had much Consultation respecting the scheme to be adopted. It was supposed that Prince Henry would accompany the King to the Parliament House, and perish there with his father. The Duke of York, afterwards Charles I., would then be the next heir, arid Percy undertook to secure his person, arid carry him off in safety as soon as the fatal blow was struck. If this scheme should fail, the Princess Elizabeth, who was under the care of Lord Harrington at his house near Coventry, might be easily surprised and secured by a party provided in the country. It was the intention to proclaim one of the Royal Family as