“Not so,” replied the lieutenant; “and if you persist in this stubborn demeanour, the severest measures will be adopted towards you. Your sole chance of avoiding the torture is in making a full confession.”
“I do not desire to avoid the torture,” replied Fawkes. “It will wrest nothing from me.”
“So all think till they have experienced it,” replied the lieutenant; “but greater fortitude than yours has given way before our engines.”
Fawkes smiled disdainfully, but made no answer.
The lieutenant then gave directions that he should be placed within a small cell adjoining the larger chamber, and that two of the guard should remain constantly beside him, to prevent him from doing himself any violence.
“You need have no fear,” observed Fawkes. “I shall not destroy my chance of martyrdom.”
At this juncture a messenger arrived, bearing a despatch from the Earl of Salisbury. The lieutenant broke the seal, and after hurriedly perusing it, drew his sword, and desiring the guard to station themselves outside the door, approached Fawkes.
“Notwithstanding the enormity of your offence,” he observed, “I find his Majesty will graciously spare your life, provided you will reveal the names of all your associates, and disclose every particular connected with the plot.”
Guy Fawkes appeared lost in reflection, and the lieutenant, conceiving he had made an impression upon him, repeated the offer.
“How am I to be assured of this?” asked the prisoner.