Meanwhile, Catesby had been ardently at work in the prosecution of his idea. He had communicated his plan to Percy and Wright. Thomas Percy was of the Northumberland family, and steward to the earl, and John Wright was brother-in-law to Percy, and reputed to be the best swordsman in England. Percy had joined the Catholics about the same time as Catesby returned to them, and like a zealous proselyte had, during the latter days of Elizabeth, gone to James at Edinburgh and endeavoured to draw from him a promise of favour to the Catholics on his accession. James is reported to have assured Percy that he would at least tolerate the mass in a corner. This James afterwards denied, but his denial can go for very little, for it was perfectly in keeping with his king-craft to promise what served to secure his ends for the time; and almost every monarch in Europe had to make that complaint against him. Percy, on the breaking out of the persecution under James, felt that he had been made the dupe of James's duplicity. He presented a remonstrance to the king, to which no answer was deigned, and Catesby found him in a mood of great resentment against the king, and in a favourable temper for his views. He not only agreed to co-operate but brought in his brother-in-law Wright, who was also a recent proselyte to Catholicism.
GUY FAWKES'S CELLAR UNDER PARLIAMENT HOUSE.
Percy appears to have been of a very excitable nature: the embryo conspirators assembled at Catesby's lodging, and Percy demanded whether they were merely to talk and never to act. Catesby said that before he would open his plan to them, he must demand from every one an oath of secrecy. This was assented to, and a few days afterwards, as appears by the confession of Winter, the five—that is, Catesby, Winter, Percy, Wright, and Fawkes—"met at a house in the fields beyond St. Clement's Inn, where they did confer and agree upon the plot, and there they took a solemn oath and vows by all their force and power to execute the same, and of secrecy not to reveal it to any of their fellows but of such as should be thought fit persons to enter into that action." When they had all sworn and perfectly understood what was proposed, Catesby led them into an upper chamber of the house, where they received the sacrament from Gerard, the Jesuit missionary, but who, according to Winter's confession, was not let into the secret.
This dreadful oath was taken on the 1st of May, 1604, but the conspirators resolved to wait for the remotest chance of any good arising out of the negotiations between England and Spain. But the treaty was concluded on the 18th of August, without any clause protective of the Catholics. Peace and commercial relations were restored between the two countries, and James was left at liberty to do as he pleased with the cautionary towns if the States did not redeem them. After the ratification of the treaty, the Spanish ambassador solicited in the name of his sovereign the goodwill of James towards his Catholic subjects; but James assured Velasco that however much he might be disposed to such indulgence, he dared not grant it, such was the terror of his Protestant subjects of any return to power of the Catholics. Velasco took his leave, and fresh orders were issued to judges and magistrates to enforce the laws against the Catholics with all rigour. This put an end to the patience of the conspirators, and they protested that it was but a fitting retribution to bury the authors of their oppressions under the ruins of the edifice in which they enacted such diabolical laws.
They now sought for a proper place to commence their operations, and they soon found a house adjoining the Parliament House in the possession of one Ferris, the tenant of Whinyard, the keeper of the king's wardrobe. This Percy hired, in his own name, of Ferris, on pretence that his office of gentleman pensioner compelled him to reside part of the year in the vicinity of the Court. But the conspirators were debarred from immediate operations, by the commissioners appointed by James to consider a scheme for the union of the two kingdoms, taking possession of this house where they sate for several months. Not wholly, however, to lose time, the conspirators hired another house in Lambeth, on the banks of the river, where they stored up wood, gunpowder, and other combustibles, which they could easily remove by night in boats, as occasion served, to their house in Westminster, as soon as it was in their hands. They confided the charge of this house in Lambeth to Thomas Kay, a Catholic gentleman of reduced means, who took the oath and entered into the plot.
On the 11th of December the conspirators obtained possession of their house, when they again swore to be faithful to each other, and they began their preparations by night. Behind the house, in a garden and adjoining the Parliament House, stood an old building. Within this they began to perforate the wall, one keeping watch while the others laboured. The watching was allotted to Fawkes, whose person was unknown, and who assumed the name of Johnson and appeared as the servant of Percy. Three of the others worked whilst the fourth rested. During the day they toiled at undermining the wall, and during the night they buried the rubbish under the earth in the garden. They had laid in a store of eggs, dried meats, and the like, so that no suspicion should be excited in the neighbourhood by their going in and out, or by there being brought in provisions for so many persons. They thus laboured indefatigably for a fortnight, when Fawkes brought them the intelligence that Parliament was prorogued from the 7th of February to the 3rd of October. On this they resolved to suspend their work till after the Christmas holidays, and to retire to their respective residences, agreeing neither to meet in the interim, nor to correspond or send messages to each other regarding the plot.
During their late labours, as they discussed various matters, Catesby, to his dread and mortification, discovered a strong tendency amongst his associates to doubt the lawfulness of their attempt, because innocent people must perish with the guilty, Catholics amid the persecuting Protestants. In vain he employed all his ingenuity in reasoning; he saw the feeling remain, and he endeavoured to secure a plausible argument before their coming together again. He therefore consulted Garnet, the provincial of the Jesuits, on this point. Catesby had accepted a commission as captain in a regiment of cavalry, to be commanded by Sir Charles Percy, in the service of Spain. He now observed to Garnet in a large company that he had no doubt about the justice of the war on the side of Spain, but as he might be called on to make attacks in which the innocent might fall with the guilty, women and children with armed soldiers, could he do that lawfully in the sight of the Almighty? Garnet replied certainly, otherwise an aggressor could always defeat the object of the party invaded by placing innocent persons amongst guilty ones in his ranks. This was enough for Catesby, the principle was admitted; and on the meeting of the conspirators after the recess, he was prepared to banish their scruple by assuring them that it was decided to be groundless by competent ecclesiastical authority.
On the 30th of January, 1605, they resumed their operations. They found the wall through which they had to dig was no less than three yards thick, and composed of huge stones, so that the labour was intense, and the danger of their blows being heard began to alarm them. They had an accession of force to their numbers, the brothers of Wright and Winter, and one John Grant, of Norbrook in Warwickshire, who had married a sister of the Winters. He had suffered much from persecution under Elizabeth, and his house was large and strongly fortified, offering a good depot for horses and ammunition. Besides these, Catesby had admitted Bates, his confidential servant, into the secret, believing he had more than half guessed it, and sent him with arms and ammunition to Grant's house in Worcestershire.