The winter's afternoon was by now so far advanced that darkness had set in, and in that dimly lighted, sombre Court the jury quickly found all the accused men guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice passed sentence of death.[1]
'Upon the rising of the Court, Sir Everard Digby, 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." Whereunto the Lords said, "God forgive you, and we do."'[2]
The conspirators met their fate with courage, considering the terrible nature of their punishment. Tied to separate hurdles, they were dragged, lying bound on their backs, through the muddy streets to the place of execution, there to be first hanged, cut down alive, drawn, and then quartered.
Guy Faukes, weak and ill though he was, seems to have suffered the least, for he was dead by the time his body was taken down. Ambrose Rookewood lived until he reached the quartering-block. Keyes, breaking the rope, was probably killed by the knife; whilst Sir Everard Digby was in full possession of all his senses on being cut down, and even felt the pain of a bruise on the head when his body fell to the ground.
- ↑ Hanging, drawing, and quartering.
- ↑ Anything more absolutely in accord with the traditional story of the Plot than the above confessions of Rookewood, Thomas Winter, and Digby it is difficult to conceive; yet, with almost incredible audacity, some Jesuit writers have had the hardihood to question whether there was a Plot at all.
