ely, Catesby, Fawkes, Percy, Thomas
Winter, and John Wright. According to agreement they all met together in
a room near St. Clement's church, in the Strand. Here they administered
an oath of secresy to each other on a Primer. When the oath had been
taken, they all went into the next room, in which was the Jesuit Gerard,
from whom, after they had heard mass, they received the sacrament.
Gerard was probably acquainted with all the particulars of the plot. He
was aware of the designs and intentions of the conspirators; for he
waited in the room for the express purpose of uniting them together into
a common bond for treasonable purposes. As soon as these ceremonies had
been passed through, Catesby and Winter unfolded to the rest the plan
which had been devised; and observed that the oath had been taken, in
order that the plot might be concealed. Fawkes and the rest fully
approved of all that had been done, entering into the plot with the
utmost alacrity. In the spring of 1604, therefore, the plot was
concocted. The oath was couched in the following terms:--

"You shall swear by the blessed Trinity, and by the sacrament you now
purpose to receive, never to disclose, directly nor indirectly, by word
or circumstance, the matter that shall be proposed to you to keep
secret, nor desist from the execution thereof until the rest shall give
you leave."

The next point was to secure a house near the House of Lords, in which
the mine might be commenced. Fortune, in this respect, appeared to
favour them, for during Winter's absence on the Continent, Catesby had
heard that a particular house adjoining the House of Lords might
probably be secured. Inquiries were made on the subject, when it was
discovered to be in the occupation of a person named Ferris, who rented
it of one of the officers of the House of Lords, by whom some of the
rooms were occasionally used for parliamentary business. Percy was
despatched by Catesby on the business, and, after some difficulty, he
succeeded in becoming tenant to Winyard, the officer, as Ferris had
previously been. Fawkes assumed the character of Percy's servant, the
keys of the house being committed to his keeping. The name under which
he now went was Johnson. They also hired another house, in Lambeth, for
the purpose of stowing away the gunpowder and the wood, previous to its
being deposited in the mine. The house was one in which Catesby often
lodged. Their object, in depositing their materials o