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22
GUY FAWKES, OU
of the night had been spent in examination,
Fawkes was sent with a guard to the Tower.
After having received the news of the appre¬
hension of Fawkes, it was agreed by the con¬
spirators, who had assembled at Ashby Ledgers,
to take up arms with the few followers they
could collect, and to endeavour to excite to
rebellion the Roman Catholics in the counties
of Warwick, Worcester, and Stafford, together
with those of Wales. This scheme was imme¬
diately adopted; arms and horses were seized
upon, and different parties despatched over
the country. But all their efforts were in vain,
and the failure of the project so complete,
that their proceedings served no other pur¬
pose than to point them out as members of
the confederacy. A party of the King’s troops
pursued some of the conspirators to Holbeach,
and here an obstinate defence was made, in
which the two Wrights, Percy, and Catesby
were killed, and Rookwood and Thomas Win¬
ter wounded. The others were eventually
taken. Tresham died a natural death in pri¬
son ; and on the 27th January 1606, eight per¬
sons, namely, Robert Winter, Thomas Winter,
Guy Fawkes, John Grant, Ambrose Rookwood,
Robert Keyes, and Thomas Bates, were tried
at Westminster by a special commission for
being concerned in the Powder Plot. Sir Eve-
rard Digby was arraigned and tried separately
for the same crime. Upon the trials, no wit¬
ness was orally examined ; the evidence con¬
sisted of the written declaration of Digby’s
servant and of the prisoners themselves.
There is reason to believe that Fawkes was
tortured in order to make him confess more
fully. All the prisoners were found guilty,

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