[139] _Gunpowder Treason, Harleian Miscellany_, iii. 121.
[140] At his first examination, November 5th 1605, Faukes declared that he had not been sure the king would come to the Parliament House on that day, and that his purpose was to have blown it up whenever his Majesty was there.
[141] The agreement between Percy and Ferrers is in the Record Office (_Gunpowder Plot Book_, 1.) and is endorsed by Cecil, "The bargaine ... for the bloody sellar." Upon this there will be more to remark later.
[143] The 11th of December, O. S., was at that period the shortest day, which circumstance suggested to Sir E. Coke, on the trial of the conspirators, one of his characteristic facetiæ; he bade his hearers note "That it was in the entring of the Sun into the Tropick of Capricorn, when they began their Mine; noting that by Mining they should descend, and by Hanging, ascend."
[144] "Gentlemen not accustomed to labour or to be pioneers."--Goodman, _Court of King James_, p. 103.
[145] "The Moles that first underwent these underminings were all grounded Schollers of the Romish Schoole, and such earnest Labourers in their Vault of Villany, that by Christmas Eve they had brought the worke under an entry, unto the Wall of the Parliament House, underpropping still as they went the Earth with their framed Timber."--Speed, _Historie_, p. 1232 (pub. 1611).
[146] In Barlow's _Gunpowder Treason_ these foundations are stated to have been three ells thick, _i.e._, eleven and a quarter feet. _Harleian Miscellany_, iii. 122.
[147] See Appendix F, _The enrolment of the Conspirators_, for the discrepancies as to dates. T. Winter (November 23rd, 1605) says that the powder was laid "in Mr. Percy's house;" Faukes, "in a low Room new builded."
[148] There is, as usual, hopeless contradiction between the two witnesses upon whom, as will be seen, we wholly depend for this portion of the story. Faukes (November 17th, 1605) makes the mining operations terminate at Candlemas. T. Winter (November 23rd) says that they went on to "near Easter" (March 31st). The date of hiring the "cellar," was about Lady Day (March 25th).
[149] The buildings of the dissolved College of St. Stephen, comprising those around the House of Lords, were granted by Edward VI. to Sir Ralph Lane. They reverted to the crown under Elizabeth, and were appropriated as residences for the auditors and tellers of the Exchequer. The locality became so populous that in 1606 it was forbidden to erect more houses.