"A few days before the
fatal blow should have been given, Keies, being at Tichmarsh, in
Northamptonshire, at his brother-in-law's house, Mr. Gilbert Pickering,
a Protestant, he suddenly whipped out his sword, and in merriment made
many offers therewith at the heads, necks, and sides, of several
gentlemen and ladies then in his company. It was then taken for a mere
frolic, and so passed accordingly; but afterwards, when the treason was
discovered, such as remembered his gestures thought he practised what he
intended to do when the plot should take effect; that is, to hack and
hew, kill and destroy, all eminent persons of a different religion from
himself."--CAULFIELD's _History of the Gunpowder Plot._

[18] The following curious story is told to that effect, in Caulfield's
"History of the Gunpowder Plot," p. 67:--

"There was a Mr. Pickering of Tichmarsh-Grove, in Northamptonshire who
was in great esteem with King James. This Mr. Pickering had a horse of
special note for swiftness, on which he used to hunt with the king. A
little before the blow was to be given, Mr. Keies, one of the
conspirators, and brother-in-law to Mr. Pickering, borrowed this horse
of him, and conveyed him to London upon a bloody design, which was thus
contrived:--Fawkes, upon the day of the fatal blow, was appointed to
retire himself into St. George's Fields, where this horse was to attend
him, to further his escape (as they made him believe) as soon as the
Parliament should be blown up. It was likewise contrived, that Mr.
Pickering, who was noted for a puritan, should that morning be murdered
in his bed, and secretly conveyed away; and also that Fawkes, as soon as
he came into St. George's Fields, should be there murdered, and so
mangled, that he could not be known; upon which, it was to be spread
abroad, that the puritans had blown up the parliament-house; and the
better to make the world believe it, there was Mr. Pickering, with his
choice horse ready to escape. But that stirred up some, who seeing the
heinousness of the fact, and him ready to escape, in detestation of so
horrible a deed, fell upon him, and hewed him to pieces; and to make it
more clear, there was his horse, known to be of special speed and
swiftness, ready to carry him away; and upon this rumour, a massacre
should have gone through the whole land upon the puritans.

"When the contrivance of this plot was discovered by some of the
conspirators, and Fawkes, who was now a prison