immensely thick—nearly nine feet—and all the rubbish displaced in the course of their toil had to be buried in the garden. Whilst still at work (December, 1604), they suddenly learned that the meeting of Parliament had been prorogued from February 7 (1605), till October 3. The conspirators, therefore, took a holiday until after Christmas before resuming their labours. On returning to their terrible task, at the end of January, they found it no easier, till one day they were startled by hearing a peculiar rumbling noise over their heads. Guy Faukes, who acted as a kind of outside porter and sentinel to the confederates engaged within, on inquiry found that the tenant of the cellar almost above them was removing, and his coals (in which he traded) were being taken away. Percy immediately hired this cellar on the pretext that he wished to use it to keep fuel and coal. He had not taken it more than a month before he and his confederates, having abandoned their now unnecessary task of digging through the lower wall, had succeeded in depositing within it barrels of gunpowder [1] brought by water from their house at Lambeth. In May (1605) they separated, to meet once more in London at the end of September.
On their reunion, they received important
- ↑ Accounts differ as to the number of the barrels, and consequently as to the total weight. The barrels were not, however, all of the same size. We may, I think, put the total at not less than two tons' weight of powder.
