omas Undirhood and his
company overtook the Sheriff, and vainly attempted to gain possession of
them to take them back to Staffordshire. The Worcestershire men,
however, held on grimly to their prize, and at last triumphantly lodged
their prisoners in the gaol at Worcester.

The examinations of the culprits in London went on. They were mainly
characterised by Mr Fawkes's contradictions on every occasion of
something which he had previously said; by the addition of a little
information each time; and by the very small amount of light that could
be obtained from any outsiders. On his third examination, Mr "John
Johnson" owned that his name was Guy Fawkes; that he was born at York,
the son of Edward Fawkes, a younger brother, who had left him "but small
living," which he ran through with equally small delay. He denied on
his conscience that he was in orders, "major or minor, regular or
secular": on which occasion he told the truth. Fawkes added that he did
not now desire to destroy the King.

"It is past," he said, "and I am now sorry for it, for that I now
perceive that God did not concur with it."

He admitted also the design on the Lady Elizabeth, but he still declined
to name his accomplices, and proved obdurate to all attempts--and the
attempts were basely made--to persuade him to accuse the prisoners in
the Tower, of whom the chief was Sir Walter Raleigh. The utmost he
could be induced to admit concerning this point was that it had been
"under consultation that the prisoners in the Tower should have
intelligence" of the intended plot, and that Raleigh and several others
had been named in this connection.

"We should have been glad to have drawn any, of what religion soever,
unto us," he said: "we meant to have made use of all the discontented
people of England."

But he would not allow, even to the last, that any communication had
actually been made.

In his fourth examination Fawkes gave the names of those who had been
"made privy afterwards," but he still refused to reveal those of the
original traitors. He was accordingly put to the torture. Gentle or
ungentle, this worked its office: and on the ninth of November, after
half-an-hour on the rack, Fawkes recounted the names of all his
accomplices. He made also an admission which proved of considerable
importance--he mentioned a house in Enfield Chase, "where Walley
[Garnet] doth lie."

Every examination is signed by the prisoner. To the first he s