hat we did,
And the good we might have done."

Cyrus Thornton.

On the 27th of January, Robert and Thomas Winter, Guy Fawkes, John
Grant, Ambrose Rookwood, Robert Keyes, and Thomas Bates were placed upon
their trial at Westminster.

Grant and Bates were really guilty of very little beyond knowing of the
plot and keeping silence. But they all received the same sentence--to
be hung, drawn, and quartered. Sir Everard Digby was tried separately,
but to the same end. He alone pleaded guilty; his principal anxiety
seemed to be to save the priests--a wish wherein all the conspirators
agreed. On leaving the dock, Sir Everard, "bowing himself towards the
Lords, said, `If I may but hear any of your Lordships say, you forgive
me, I shall go more cheerfully to the gallows.' Whereupon the Lords
said, `God forgive you, and we do.'"

Of all the conspirators, Sir Everard won the greatest sympathy, from his
rank, his youth, his accomplishments, and especially his fine person--
which last drew expressions of pity from the Queen, who was afflicted
with that fatal worship of beauty which was the bane of the Stuart race.

Three days later, the scaffold was set up at the west end of Saint
Paul's Cathedral, and four of the traitors were brought forth to die.
They were the four least guilty of the group--Sir Everard Digby, Robert
Winter, John Grant, and Thomas Bates.

As the prisoners were being drawn to the scaffold upon hurdles, a
pathetic incident took place. Martha Bates had followed her husband to
London, and as the procession passed by, she rushed from the crowd of
spectators, and flung herself upon the hurdle in an agony. Bates then
told her of the money entrusted to him by Wright, which he wished her to
keep for her own relief, and it was afterwards granted to her by the
Crown.

Arrived at the place of execution, Sir Everard was the first to ascend
the ladder. Very pale, yet very self-controlled, he spoke to the
people, saying that his conscience had led him into this offence, which
in respect of religion he held to be no sin at all, but in respect of
the law he confessed that he had done wrong; and he asked forgiveness of
God, the King, and the kingdom. He declined the ministrations of the
clergy, and after a few Latin prayers, crossed himself, and so "made an
end of his wicked days in this world,"--an example for all time how
little education and accomplishments can do to keep man from sin, a
martyr to a priest-