saw others do;
he could not take upon his lips with impunity words which he heard
freely used around him. His conscience was unseared as yet, and it
tormented him sorely. The result of these reflections was that Aubrey
turned into Oxford House, without visiting King Street at all, and
sought his bed without making any attempt to convey the message.

Before the conspirators resumed their work after the Christmas holidays,
they took two more into their number. These were Robert Winter of
Huddington, the elder brother of Thomas, and John Grant of Norbrook, who
had married Dorothy, sister of the Wrights. Catesby and Thomas Winter
went down to the Catherine Wheel at Oxford, whence they sent for their
friends to come to them, and having first pledged them to secrecy, they
were then initiated into the plot.

It was about this Christmas that Catesby also took into his confidence
the only one of the conspirators who was not a gentleman--his own
servant, Thomas Bates, partly because he had "great opinion of him for
his long-tried fidelity," and partly also because, having been employed
in carrying messages, he suspected that he had some inkling of the
secret, and wished that, like the rest, he should be bound to keep it by
oath. Bates is described as a yeoman, and "a man of mean station, who
had been much persecuted on account of religion." Having been desired
to confirm his oath by receiving the Sacrament "with intention," and as
a pre-requisite of this was confession, Bates went to Greenway, whom he
acquainted with the particulars, "which he was not desirous to hear,"
and asked if he might lawfully join in such work. Greenway directed him
to keep the secret, "because it was for a good cause," and forbade him
to name the subject to any other priest. This is Bates's account;
Greenway asserts that Bates never named the subject to him, either in or
out of confession; but the Jesuit code of morality required his denial,
if he had heard it in confession only. Poor Bates was the most innocent
of the conspirators, and the most truly penitent: he was rather a tool
and a victim than a miscreant. He lost his life through neglect of a
much-forgotten precept--"If sinners entice thee, consent thou not."

The conspirators now set to work again on their mine, and wrought till
Candlemas Day, by which time they were half through the wall of the
House. Fawkes was on all occasions the sentinel. They had provided
themselves with "bak