Parliament was to
be let. Here was a chance! They took it at once, and gave up digging out
their tunnel. Guy Fawkes was appointed to see that the scheme was
carried out, and his was the dangerous part. He had to buy barrels of
gunpowder singly and at different times, and see that they were carried
into his cellar without anyone seeing them. Then he bought a great deal
of wood in faggots and stacked it over the barrels of gunpowder, so that
if anyone did come into that cellar, he would never suspect it was
anything but an ordinary cellar for storing wood. The meeting of
Parliament was to take place in October, and by August all was ready;
then the meeting of Parliament was delayed, and the conspirators heard
it was not to be until the fifth of November. The time now drew very
near. Then it occurred to some of the conspirators that perhaps some of
their own friends who were members of Parliament would be blown up with
the rest, and they grew uneasy. Each one wanted to warn his own friend
not to go to Parliament that day, but no one knew how to do it for fear
of betraying the plot. At last, however, one of the conspirators, who
was a brother-in-law of Lord Mounteagle's, sent Lord Mounteagle a
letter, saying that he had better not go to Parliament on the day of
opening, for the Parliament was to receive 'a terrible blow, and yet
shall not see who hurts them.' Lord Mounteagle was naturally distressed
to receive such a letter, without any sign who had sent it, and he took
it to the King. James was a clever man in some ways, and he saw at once
that a terrible blow, yet not seen, must mean something to do with
gunpowder; so he had the cellars under the Houses of Parliament
searched, and discovered the barrels of gunpowder. Now Guy Fawkes knew
nothing of this, but came the night before the fifth to be in time to do
his dreadful deed. He was a brave man, though a wicked one, caring
little what evil he was doing. He had arranged a train of gunpowder
running along the floor to what is called a slow match--that is to say,
a long match that burns for perhaps five or ten minutes, so that the
person who lights it has time to get away before the explosion
occurs--and then he waited until the time when all the members of
Parliament and the King should be there before setting a light to it.
Cannot you picture Guy Fawkes alone in that gloomy cellar that night? He
did not know that the plot was discovered; he thought that everything
had bee