m the better; but this morning he hath changed his mind and is
[so] sullen and obstinate as there is no dealing with him."

The sight of the examiners, together with the sight of the rack,[11]
changed Fawkes' mind to some extent. He was resolved that nothing but
actual torture should wring from him the names of his fellow-plotters,
who so far as was known in London were still at large.[12] He prepared
himself, however, to reveal the secrets of the plot so far as was
consistent with the concealment of the names of those concerned in it.
His fifth examination, on the 8th, the last before the one taken under
torture on the 9th, gives to the inquirer into the reality of the plot
all that he wants to know.

[11] In _The King's Book_ it is stated that Fawkes was shown the
rack, but never racked. Probably the torture used on the 9th was
that of the manacles, or hanging up by the wrists or thumbs.

[12] The principal ones were either killed or taken at Holbeche on
that very day.

"He confesseth," so the tale begins, "that a practice was first broken
unto him against his majesty for the Catholic cause, and not invented or
propounded by himself, and this was first propounded unto him about
Easter last was twelvemonth, beyond the seas in the Low Countries, by an
English layman,[13] and that Englishman came over with him in his company
into England, and they two and three more[14] were the first five
mentioned in the former examination. And they five resolving to do
somewhat for the Catholic cause (a vow being first taken by all of them
for secrecy), one of the other three[15] propounded to perform it with
powder, and resolved that the place should be (where this action should
be performed and justice done) in or near the place of the sitting of the
Parliament, wherein Religion had been unjustly suppressed. This being
resolved, the manner of it was as followeth:

"First they hired the house at Westminster, of one Ferres, and having
his house they sought then to make a mine under the Upper House of
Parliament, and they began to make the mine in or about the 11 of
December, and they five first entered into the works, and soone after
took an other[16] to them, having first sworn him and taken the sacrament
for secrecy; and when they came to the wall (that was about three yards
thick) and found it a matter of great difficulty, they took to them an
other in like manner, with oath and sacrament as afores