seen this day! Bring me the powder!
bring me the powder, that I may set it afire, and blow up ourselves and
this house together!"

Rookwood rushed to a picture of the Virgin, and throwing himself on his
knees, confessed "that the act was so bloody that he desired God to
forgive him;" in which prayer he was joined by some of the others.
Catesby himself lost his firmness, and on recovering himself, gasped out
his fear that God disapproved of their project. Robert Winter and
Greenway fled in terror--so far that they never came back. Stephen
Littleton went off also, but he waited long enough to send a message to
Thomas Winter, who had not yet come in.

"Tell him to fly," said the valiant Stephen, "and so will I."

Whatever else Thomas Winter was, he was loyal to his oath and to his
friends.

"His honour rooted in dishonour stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true."

He supposed the news to mean that Catesby was killed.

"Nay," said he; "I will first see the body of my friend and bury him,
whatsoever befall me."

Returning to the house, Winter found his friends decidedly alive and
"reasonable well."

"What resolve you to do?" he asked them.

"We mean here to die," was the answer.

"Well!" replied Winter, "I will take such part as you do."

And John Wright said, "I will live and die among you."

Not long afterwards, about noon, the Sheriff and his troops surrounded
Holbeach House. After several ineffectual summonses to surrender, and
the reading of a proclamation in the King's name bidding the rebels to
submit themselves, which met only with blunt refusals, the Sheriff fired
the house, and led an attack upon the gates. The conspirators who were
left showed no lack of courage. They walked out into the court-yard,
set the gate open, and took up their stand in front of it, Catesby in
the middle, with Percy and Thomas Winter on either side. At the first
assault, an arrow from a cross-bow had struck Winter in the shoulder,
and rendered his right arm useless. The second shot struck John Wright,
the third Christopher Wright, the fourth Rookwood. The two Wrights
fell, and were supposed to be dead.

"Stand by me, Tom," said Catesby to Winter, "and we will die together."

"Sir," was the answer, "I have lost the use of my right arm, and I fear
that will cause _me_ to be taken."

They were the last words of Robert Catesby. The next bullet passed
clean through his body, and lodged in that of Perc