Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason: An Historical Romance Read online

  Produced by Robert Cicconetti, KD Weeks and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (Thisfile was produced from images generously made availableby The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)

  Transcriber's Note: Some obvious typographical errors have beencorrected, and several inconsistent spellings regularized. Please seethe Transcriber's end notes for details.

  Execution of Guy Fawkes]

  GUY FAWKES

  OR

  THE GUNPOWDER TREASON

  _AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE_

  BY WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH

  With Illustrations on Steel by George Cruikshank

  LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited

  BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL

  LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING WORKS, BAZAAR BUILDINGS, LONDON, W.C.

  TO

  MRS. HUGHES,

  KINGSTON LISLE, BERKS.

  MY DEAR MRS. HUGHES,

  You are aware that this Romance was brought to a close during my lastbrief visit at Kingston Lisle, when the time necessary to be devoted toit deprived me of the full enjoyment of your society, and, limiting myrange--no very irksome restriction,--to your own charming garden andgrounds, prevented me from accompanying you in your walks to yourfavourite and beautiful downs. This circumstance, which will suffice togive it some interest in your eyes by associating it with yourresidence, furnishes me with a plea, of which I gladly avail myself, ofinscribing it with your name, and of recording, at the same time, thehigh sense I entertain of your goodness and worth, the value I set uponyour friendship,--a friendship shared in common with some of the mostillustrious writers of our time,--and the gratitude I shall never ceaseto feel for attentions and kindnesses, little less than maternal, whichI have experienced at your hands.

  In the hope that you may long continue to diffuse happiness round yourown circle, and contribute to the instruction and delight of the manyattached friends with whom you maintain so active and so interesting acorrespondence; and that you may live to see your grandsons fulfil theirpresent promise, and tread in the footsteps of their high-minded andexcellent-hearted father,--and of _his_ father! I remain

  Your affectionate and obliged friend,

  W. HARRISON AINSWORTH.

  KENSAL MANOR HOUSE, HARROW ROAD, _July 26, 1841_.

  PREFACE.

  The tyrannical measures adopted against the Roman Catholics in the earlypart of the reign of James the First, when the severe penal enactmentsagainst recusants were revived, and with additional rigour, and whichled to the remarkable conspiracy about to be related, have been soforcibly and faithfully described by Doctor Lingard,[1] that thefollowing extract from his history will form a fitting introduction tothe present work.

  "The oppressive and sanguinary code framed in the reign of Elizabeth,was re-enacted to its full extent, and even improved with additionalseverities. Every individual who had studied or resided, or shouldafterwards study or reside in any college or seminary beyond the sea,was rendered incapable of inheriting, or purchasing, or enjoying lands,annuities, chattels, debts, or sums of money, within the realm; and asmissionaries sometimes eluded detection under the disguise of tutors, itwas provided that no man should teach even the rudiments of grammar inpublic or in private, without the previous approbation of the diocesan.

  "The execution of the penal laws enabled the king, by an ingeniouscomment, to derive considerable profit from his past forbearance. It waspretended that he had never forgiven the penalties of recusancy; he hadmerely forbidden them to be exacted for a time, in the hope that thisindulgence would lead to conformity; but his expectations had beendeceived; the obstinacy of the Catholics had grown with the lenity ofthe sovereign; and, as they were unworthy of further favour, they shouldnow be left to the severity of the law. To their dismay, the legal fineof twenty pounds per lunar month was again demanded, and not only forthe time to come, but for the whole period of the suspension; a demandwhich, by crowding thirteen payments into one, reduced many families ofmoderate incomes to a state of absolute beggary. Nor was this all. Jameswas surrounded by numbers of his indigent countrymen. Their habits wereexpensive, their wants many, and their importunities incessant. Tosatisfy the more clamorous, a new expedient was devised. The kingtransferred to them his claims on some of the more opulent recusants,against whom they were at liberty to proceed by law, in his name, unlessthe sufferers should submit to compound, by the grant of an annuity forlife, or the immediate payment of a considerable sum. This was at a timewhen the jealousies between the two nations had reached a height, ofwhich, at the present day, we have but little conception. Had the moneybeen carried to the royal coffers, the recusants would have hadsufficient reason to complain; but that Englishmen should be placed bytheir king at the mercy of foreigners, that they should be stripped oftheir property to support the extravagance of his Scottish minions, thisadded indignity to injustice, exacerbated their already woundedfeelings, and goaded the most moderate almost to desperation." From thisdeplorable state of things, which is by no means over-coloured in theabove description, sprang the Gunpowder Plot.

  The county of Lancaster has always abounded in Catholic families, and atno period were the proceedings of the ecclesiastical commissioners morerigorous against them than at that under consideration. Manchester, "theGoshen of this Egypt," as it is termed by the fiery zealot, WardenHeyrick, being the place where all the recusants were imprisoned, thescene of the early part of this history has been laid in that town andits immediate neighbourhood. For the introduction of the munificentfounder of the Blue Coat Hospital into a tale of this description Iought, perhaps, to apologize; but if I should succeed by it in arousingmy fellow-townsmen to a more lively appreciation of the great benefitsthey have derived from him, I shall not regret what I have written.

  In Viviana Radcliffe I have sought to portray the loyal and devoutCatholic, such as I conceive the character to have existed at theperiod. In Catesby, the unscrupulous and ambitious plotter, masking hisdesigns under the cloak of religion. In Garnet, the subtle, and yetsincere Jesuit. And in Fawkes the gloomy and superstitious enthusiast.One doctrine I have endeavoured to enforce throughout,--TOLERATION.

  From those who have wilfully misinterpreted one of my formerproductions, and have attributed to it a purpose and an aim utterlyforeign to my own intentions, I can scarcely expect fairer treatment forthe present work. But to that wider and more discriminating class ofreaders from whom I have experienced so much favour and support, Iconfidently commit this volume, certain of meeting with leniency andimpartiality.

  [1] Vide _History of England_, vol. ix. New Edition.