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Passage Illustrated: Fawkes refuses to crack

"Still, you refuse to make the only reparation in your power — you refuse to disclose your associates?" said Salisbury.

"I cannot betray them," replied Fawkes.

"Traitor! it is needless," cried the Earl; "they are known to us — nay, they have betrayed themselves. They have risen in open and armed rebellion against the King; but a sufficient power has been sent against them; and if they are not ere this defeated and captured, many days will not elapse before they will be lodged in the Tower."

"If this is the case, you require no information from me," rejoined Fawkes. "But I pray you name them to me."

"I will do so," replied Salisbury; "and if I have omitted you can supply the deficiency. I will begin with Robert Catesby, the chief contriver of this hell-engendered plot, — I will next proceed to the superior of the Jesuits, Father Garnet, — next, to another Jesuit priest, Father Oldcorne, — next, to Sir Everard Digby, — then, to Thomas Winter and Robert Winter, — then, to John Wright and Christopher Wright, — then, to Ambrose Rookwood, Thomas Percy, and John Grant, and lastly, to Robert Keyes."

"Are these all?" demanded Fawkes.

"All we are acquainted with," said Salisbury.

"Then add to them the names of Francis Tresham, and of his brother-in-law, Lord Mounteagle," rejoined Fawkes. "I charge both with being privy to the plot."

"I have forgotten another name," said Salisbury, in some confusion, "that of Viviana Radcliffe, of Ordsall Hall. I have received certain information that she was wedded to you while you were resident at White Webbs, near Epping Forest, and was cognisant of the plot. If captured, she will share your fate."

Fawkes could not repress a groan.

Salisbury pursued his interrogations, but it was evident, from the increasing feebleness of the prisoner, that he would sink under it if the examination was further protracted. He was therefore ordered to attach his signature to the minutes taken by Sir Edward Coke, and was placed in a chair for that purpose. A pen was then given him, but for some time his shattered fingers refused to grasp it. By a great effort, and with acute pain, he succeeded in tracing his Christian name thus: — Book the Third, "The Conspirators," Chapter I, "The Torture," pp. 273-74]

Above: Ainsworth's insertion of the signature of Guy Fawkes at the close of Book III, Chapter I: Guido [Click on image to enlarge it.]

Commentary

This illustration appears adjacent to the relevant text in both the May 1841 number of Bentley's Miscellany, facing page 441, opposite the opening of Book Three, Chapter I, "How Guy Fawkes was put to the Torture," and in the volume edition at the very end of that same chapter, when the enfeebled Fawkes signs his name to Sir Edward Coke's minutes of the interrogation. The picture appearing at the head of the May 1841 instalment may well have misled serial readers into assuming that Fawkes both confessed to his own part in the conspiracy and implicated his confederates. In fact, he impeaches Francis Tresham (whom he suspects of being a double-agent) and a Catholic nobleman who was not party to the plot at all, Lord Mounteagle — who, unbeknownst to Fawkes, has informed the authorities about the Gunpowder Treason.

Three of Cruikshank’s illustration for Ainsworth’s The Tower of London: Left: The Traiter’s Gate. Middle: The By-ward Tower.. Right: The White Tower. [Click on images to enlarge them.]

The scene is the Lord Lieutenant's Lodgings in the Tower of London, which Fawkes and his guards have entered in a barge from the Thames, through the Water or Traitor's Gate, some days earlier. Since news of the Gunpowder Plot has already spread through the populace, a hostile crowd had gathered to revile the state prisoner as he passed. The chief officer, Sir Thomas Waad, had read a warrant from the King declaring that he would spare Fawkes's life in exchange for the names of his associates and the particulars of the plot. Fawkes had been interested, asking for an assurance in the form of a signed pardon. However, he could not comply with the Earl of Salisbury's demand that he name the heads of the important Catholic families connected with the affair. The functionaries of the Tower had then applied the Scavenger's Daughter, the gauntlets, and the rack to Fawkes, who had bled profusely before being granted a temporary reprieve. Taken to the Little Ease, Fawkes had received a visit from the jailor's daughter, who had promised to help him escape to Viviana. He then survived an assault by rats in a dungeon, and experienced another three days of various kinds of torture before the formal examination that Cruikshank depicts. The compactness of the design necessarily results in a crowded room, even with the elimination of all but two of the guards. However, Cruikshank successfully individualises the Commissioners by their poses, while focussing the viewer's attention on the two principals, the Earl of Salisbury, leaning on the table, and Guy Fawkes, unsteadily putting his signature to a folio sheet of writing. A thorough reading of the text, however, reveals that his manuscript is not a confession implicating his associates, but simply a transcript of the examination, as the title of the plate indicates.

Topcliffe, the master of Catholic repression in the kingdom, conducts Fawkes into the interrogation room accompanied by a dozen halberdiers, but, even supported by Topcliffe and the Head Jailor, Fawkes can barely drag himself into the room. The illustrator has not bothered with the dozen guards, but has captured Fawkes's emaciated look, if not his crippled legs. Cruikshank's prisoner can barely hold the quill with which he is about to sign his name. From the positions of the various figures, we can determine the identities of only a few: the man leaning on the table, apparently demanding Fawkes to sign, is the Earl of Salisbury. Ainsworth has named eight Commissioners besides Salisbury: the Earls of Northampton, Nottingham, Suffolk, Worcester, Devon, Marr, and Dunbar, and Sir John Popham, Lord Chief Justice. Cruikshank has included, besides Salisbury, a pair of guards and Coke, and nine other figures in the room with Fawkes, one of whom must be Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, appointed in August 1605, and formerly Secretary to the Privy Council (Cruikshank, a frequent visitor to the Tower, would have been aware of the monument that Waad erected to himself in the Governor's quarters). However, since Cruikshank has not attempted to distinguish any of these characters whom Ainsworth does not describe, the reader is naturally drawn to the one constant in all these illustrations, Guy Fawkes, with whose deplorable condition one cannot help but be sympathetic, especially after reading all he has endured over the five days since his arrest.

Fawkes suspects that Frances Tresham, brother-in-law of Lord Mounteagle, is a fifth-columnist and names him as a member of the Conspiracy. Historians have long suspected that Tresham wrote the anonymous note to Mounteagle advising him to absent himself from Parliament. In other words, Fawkes deliberately implicates the two whom the authorities have not mentioned as being among the Gunpowder Plotters. Doing so makes him look co-operative, but in fact gives Salisbury nothing useful, since he has probably exonerated both men already. Salisbury specifically mentions the following:

Robert Catesby, the chief contriver of this hell-engendered plot, — I will next proceed to the superior of the Jesuits, Father Garnet, — next, to another Jesuit priest, Father Oldcorne, — next, to Sir Everard Digby, — then, to Thomas Winter and Robert Winter,—then, to John Wright and Christopher Wright, — then, to Ambrose Rookwood, Thomas Percy, and John Grant, and lastly, to Robert Keyes." [273-74]

Curiously, Salisbury does not mention Thomas Bates, one of Catesby's retainers, although he appears in a contemporary illustration as a member of he group: he was the only informant who indicated Jesuit involvement in the Plot. Although Tresham had expressed his commitment to the cause, like Ainsworth's fictional Viviana, he seems to have drawn the line at mass murder. Indeed, once Catesby had revealed the plotters' target and their methodology, Tresham had expressed revulsion at the notion and had tried to talk them out of blowing up St. Stephen's Hall.

When Guy Fawkes was arrested Tresham tried to demonstrate his innocence by offering to help to round up the other conspirators.

But at his interrogation, under torture Fawkes revealed his support for the conspiracy.

Tresham, along with the other surviving plotters, was imprisoned in the Tower of London.

He died there from illness on 23 December 1605 and thus escaped the fate that awaited the others – being hung, drawn and quartered.

However, even after his death he was convicted of treason and his head was cut off and displayed on a pole in Northampton as a grisly warning to others. ["Who was Francis Tresham?"]

References

Ainsworth, William Harrison. Guy Fawkes, or The Gunpowder Treason: An Historical Romance. With 22 illustrations by George Cruikshank. London: Cunningham & Mortimer, 1841 (first edition). Rpt., London: George Routledge & Sons, n. d. [See the text and images of the novel posted in May 2013 at Project Gutenberg Australia's website: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1302021h.html .]

Cust, Richard, and David Hughes. ""The Reluctant Terrorist: Who was Francis Tresham and how was he involved in the Gunpowder Plot?". Online version available from The Sun (UK Edition). Web. 21 October 2017. Retrieved 27 August 2018.

Vann, J. Don. "Guy Fawkes in Bentley's Miscellany, January 1840-Noevember 1841." Victorian Novels in Serial. New York: MLA, 1985. P. 20.

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Last modified 28 August 2018