As the time finally appointed for the meeting of the parliament drew near, Catesby and the rest prepared to leave London, entrusting the task of firing the train to Guy Fawkes, who had assumed the name of Johnson, and professed to be Percy's servant left in charge of his master's house. Their plot had been carried on, as they imagined, with profound secresy; but there seems little doubt that the secretary (Cecil) had long had a sufficiently accurate idea of their design. Both the French and the Spanish governments had apprized him that some desperate enterprise was in meditation among the Romish refugees in Flanders; a visit which Fawkes had made to them in the preceding summer had not escaped his notice, but he allowed them to remain unmolested until October 26, when an anonymous letter was delivered to Lord Monteagle, (William Parker, brother-in-law of Tresham,) urging him to absent himself from the meeting of parliament, and was by him submitted to the council. The matter was still suffered to stand over for awhile, until the king returned from a hunting excursion, when the letter was laid before him, (Nov. 1,) and he professed to discover the full meaning of its enigmatical warning). At length, early in the morning of November 5, Fawkes was seized in the vault, carried before the council, examined, and committed to the Tower. His associates at once fled to

The passage said to have suggested the idea of gunpowder was, "Though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this parliament, and yet they shall not see who hurts them." It seems probable that the letter was written by Tresham, who repented of his participation in the plot; he was apprehended soon after its failure, and died in the Tower before he could be brought to trial.

Dunchurch, taking some few friends and their servants with them, to the number of about forty horse. They found there a well-armed party assembled, but all but three of them declined to cast in their fortunes with those of the baffled conspirators. The sheriffs of Warwick and Worcester arrayed the power of their counties, and Catesby and his party retired in haste to Holbeach house, in Worcestershire, the residence of Stephen Lyttelton, (one who had joined them,) where they had resolved to maintain themselves, in the hope of an insurrection of the neighbouring Romanists in their favour. No one stirred however; their powder blew up, desperately wounding Grant, Keys, and Rookwood; and when the sheriff (Sir Richard Walsh) approached, (Nov. 8,) Catesby, Percy, and the two Wrights, purposely exposed themselves to their assailants, and were shot dead. Thomas Winter, Bates, and the wounded men, were made prisoners; Sir Everard Digby cut his way through, but was soon after captured, as were Robert Winter and Stephen Lyttelton, a few days after.

A.D. 1606. The parliament meets Jan. 21, and sits till May 27.

The king, in his opening speech, declared that he did not impute the guilt of the gunpowder plot to any but the actual perpetrators. His parliament, however, passed acts in consequence, which greatly added to the burden of the penal laws affecting the whole body of Romish recusants. Beside the statutes 3 Jac. I. c. 1, which

A national flag for Great Britain announced by royal proclamation", April 12.

Episcopacy restored in Scotland, by act of parliament there; the General Assembly acknowledge the bishops as moderators in their synods, and the king confers on them like powers with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in England. Severe laws are passed in the Scottish parliament against the Romanists.

National Flag of Great Britain.

The earls of Tyrone (Hugh O'Neal), Tyrconnel (Roderic O'Donnell), and several of their followers, escape from Ireland, and join the Spaniards in the Low Countries". The parliament meets Nov. 18, and sits until July 4, 1607.

A.D. 1607. The king recommends the union of England and Scotland to the English parliament, but the proposition is received with coldness, and the matter is dropped. One act, however, is passed, [4 Jac. I. c. 1,] by which various acts hostile to Scotland are repealed P.

"This, as will be seen from the engraving, is a combination of the cross of St. George and the saltire of St. Andrew; the saltire of St. Patrick was added on the union of Great Britain and Ireland, Jan. 1, 1801.

They apprehended that the king had a design to extinguish Romanism in Ireland, and had projected a rising against the government, but were discovered before their plans were ripe; the vast forfeitures of their lands gave occasion to the new plantations in Ulster, a few years later.

P They extended from the 7th of Richard II. (1383) to the time of Elizabeth.

Drunkenness made punishable by a fine of 5s., or six hours in the stocks, [c. 5.]

Great numbers of people assemble in Northamptonshire and other midland counties 9, in May, and throw down inclosures; they are headed by one John Reynolds, who takes the name of Captain Pouch, and are not suppressed without difficulty.

The first permanent settlement of the English in North America; James Town, in Virginia, founded".

A.D. 1608. O'Dogherty, an Irish chieftain in Ulster, rises in arms, kills Paulet, the governor of Derry, and defeats several parties sent against him; he is himself killed in battle in August; when nearly the whole of Ulster is escheated to the crown, and measures are resolved on for its colonization by British settlers.

A.D. 1609. A twelve years' truce concluded between the Spaniards and the Hollanders, by the mediation of the kings, March 29.

Large estates belonging to Tresham and others of the gunpowder plot traitors, in these parts, had been granted to the royal favourites, who sought to increase them by seizing adjoining common lands; this robbery provoked the neighbouring gentry, and they declined to act against the insurgents, who were only put down by a regular military force.

This was by virtue of a royal charter to a body of merchants called the London Company; the colony attempted by Ralegh had failed several years before. See p. 299.

This event had some unexpected consequences. Many of the seamen, both English and Dutch, who had heretofore preyed on the Spaniards, retired to the West Indies, where they became well known as the Buccaneers; while some joined the Algerines and the other Barbary states, turned renegades, and induced their new companions to extend their ravages, hitherto confined to the Mediterranean, to the British Channel. An attempt made to chastise them in the year 1620-21 was unsuccessful, and their continued depredations gave occasion to the first levy of ship-money in 1635.

Lithgow, a Scotchman, who visited Barbary in 1615, thus mentions the English renegades:-"Here in Tunis I met with our English captain, general Waird, once a great pirate and commander at sea, who, in spite of his denied acceptance in England, had turned

The charter of the East India company renewed for an unlimited period.

A.D. 1610. The parliament meets Feb. 9, and sits till July 23.

Naturalized persons directed to take the sacrament as well as the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, [7 Jac. I. c. 2.]

A charter granted for the colonization of Newfoundland, May 2.

The king's eldest son is created prince of Wales, May 30; to meet the expense a feudal aid is levied on the peoplet.

Dr. Cowell's book" is censured by the commons, and steps taken to bring him to punishment, which is frustrated by the king proroguing and afterwards dissolving the parliament.

Three prelates are consecrated for Scottish sees, at Lambeth, Oct. 21. They were John Spottiswood, Gawin Hamilton, and Andrew Lambe, appointed to Glasgow, Galloway, and Brechin.

The parliament re-assembles October 16, and sits till Dec. 6.

Archbishop Bancroft dies, Nov. 2.

Turk, and built there a fair palace, beautified with rich marble and alabaster stones; with whom I found domestic some fifteen circumcised English runagates, whose lives and countenances were both alike, even as desperate as disdainful. Yet old Waird, the master, was placable, and joined me safely with a passing land conduct to Algiers; yea, and divers times in my ten days' staying there, I dined and supped with him, but lay aboard in the French ship."

t

It would otherwise have expired Dec. 31, 1615.

See vol. i. p. 178. Its amount was £21,800, which was very unwillingly paid, and the minister Cecil took the opportunity to negotiate with the commons for the redemption of all similar feudal burdens, but could not effect his object.

"The Interpreter." See p. 331.