the deliverance of the inheritance of the faithful from the
generation of the ungodly.

But warnings had already come to the government, especially from
Paris, where the priests of the Jesuit party ventured to express
themselves still more plainly than in London. The warning was conveyed
with the express intimation that 'somewhat is at present in hand among
these desperate hypocrites.'[338] What an impression must now have
been produced when one of the Catholic lords, who at an earlier period
had followed this party, but had for some time withdrawn from it, Lord
Mounteagle, communicated to the first minister a letter in which he
was admonished in mysterious language to hold aloof from the opening
of Parliament. It may be that the King, as he himself relates, in
deciphering the sense of a word hit upon the supposition that a fate
similar to that of his father was being prepared for him; or it may be
that the ministers had, as they affirm, come upon the traces of the
matter; but however this may have been, on the evening before the
opening of Parliament the vaults were examined, when not only were the
powder-barrels found among wood and faggots, but also one of the
conspirators, Guy Fawkes, who was busy with the last preparations for
the execution of the plot. With a smiling countenance he confessed his
purpose, which he seemed to regard as the fulfilment of a religious
duty. The pedantic monarch thought himself in the presence of a
fanatical Mutius Scaevola.

The rest of the conspirators who were in London, alarmed by the
discovery, hastened to the appointed rendezvous at Dunchurch; but the
news which they brought with them caused general discouragement. With
a band of about one hundred men, they set off to make their escape to
Wales, the home of most of the Catholics, hoping to receive the
promised reinforcements and the support of the population on their
way. They once actually attempted to assure themselves of the latter;
but on declaring that they were for God and the country, they received
the answer that they ought also to be for the King. No one joined
them, and many of their comrades had already dispersed when they were
overtaken at Holbeach by the armed bands of Worcestershire under the
Sheriff. Percy and Catesby, as they stood back to back, were shot dead
by two balls from the same musket; the two Wrights were killed, and
Thomas Winter taken prisoner.[339]

The authority of government triumphed over this mos