[281] To J. Chamberlain, 10th-20th November, 1605. P.R.O. France, b. 132, f. 335 b.

[282] The Council appears at this time to have met in the Painted Chamber, and, without at all wishing to lay too much stress upon this point, I cannot but remark that the supposition that this was the original scene assigned to the operations of Faukes would solve various difficulties:

  1. Beneath the Painted Chamber was a vaulted cellar, answering to the description we have so frequently heard, whereas under the House of Lords was neither a cellar nor a vault.
  2. This crypt beneath the Painted Chamber has been constantly shown as "Guy Faukes' Cellar."
  3. In prints of the period, Faukes is usually represented as going to blow up this chamber, never the House of Lords.

[283] To Chamberlain, November 13th (O.S.), 1605. P.R.O.

[284] Thus M. Bouillet, in the latest edition of his Dictionnaire d'histoire et géographie, speaks as follows: "Le ministre cupide et orgueilleux, Cécil, semble avoir été l'âme du complot, et l'avoir découvert lui même au moment propice, après avoir présenté à l'esprit faible de Jacques I. les dangers auxquels il était en but de la part des Catholiques."

Gazeau and Prampain (Hist. Mod., tome i.) speak of the conspiracy as "cette plaisanterie;" and say of the conspirators, "Dans une cave, ils avaient déposé 36 barils contenant (ou soi-disant tels) de la poudre."

[285] P.R.O. Gunpowder Plot Book, 39 (November 7).

[286] In Herring's Pietas Pontificia (1606) the king is described as coming to the House:

"Magna cum Pompa, stipatorumque Caterva,
Palmatisque, Togis, Gemmis, auroque refulgent:
Ingens fit Populi concursus, compita complens,
Turbis se adglomerant densis, spectantque Triumphum."

[287] Faukes himself says—examination of November 16th—that the touchwood would have burnt a quarter of an hour.