e, yet Suffolk thought it was
necessary to make a further search; and, upon his return to the king, a
resolution was taken that it should be made in such a manner as should
be effectual, without scandalizing any body, or giving any alarm.

Sir Thomas Knevet, steward of Westminster, was accordingly ordered,
under the pretext of searching for stolen tapestry hangings in that
place, and other houses thereabouts, to remove the wood, and see if
anything was concealed underneath. This gentleman going at midnight,
with several attendants, to the cellar, met Fawkes, just coming out of
it, booted and spurred, with a tinder-box and three matches in his
pockets, and seizing him without any ceremony, or asking him any
questions, as soon as the removal of the wood discovered the barrels of
gunpowder, he caused him to be bound, and properly secured.

Fawkes, who was a hardened and intrepid villain, made no hesitation of
avowing the design, and that it was to have been executed on the morrow.
He made the same acknowledgment at his examination before a committee of
the council; and though he did not deny having some associates in this
conspiracy, yet no threats of torture could make him discover any of
them, he declaring that "he was ready to die, and had rather suffer ten
thousand deaths, than willingly accuse his master, or any other."

By repeated examinations, however, and assurances of his master's being
apprehended, he at length acknowledged, "that whilst he was abroad,
Percy had kept the keys of the cellar, had been in it since the powder
had been laid there, and, in effect, that he was one of the principal
actors in the intended tragedy."

In the mean time it was found out, that Percy had come post out of the
north on Saturday night, the 2d of November, and had dined on Monday at
Sion-house, with the earl of Northumberland; that Fawkes had met him on
the road, and that, after the lord chamberlain had been that evening in
the cellar, he went, about six o'clock, to his master, who had fled
immediately, apprehending the plot was detected.

The news of the discovery immediately spreading, the conspirators fled
different ways, but chiefly into Warwickshire, where Sir Everard Digby
had appointed a hunting-match, near Dunchurch, to get a number of
recusants together, sufficient to seize the princess Elizabeth; but this
design was prevented by her taking refuge in Coventry; and their whole
party, making about one hundred, retired t