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Passage Realised: The 5 November 1605 Arrest

The fifth of November was now at hand, and the clock of the adjoining abbey had scarcely ceased tolling the hour that proclaimed its arrival, when Fawkes, somewhat wearied with his solitary watching, determined to repair, for a short space, to the adjoining house. He accordingly quitted the cellar, leaving his lantern lighted within it in one corner.

Opening the door, he gazed cautiously around, but perceiving nothing, after waiting a few seconds, he proceeded to lock the door. While thus employed, he thought he heard a noise behind him, and turning suddenly, he beheld through the gloom several persons rushing towards him, evidently with hostile intent. His first impulse was to draw a petronel, and grasp his sword: but before he could effect his purpose, his arms were pinioned by a powerful grasp from behind, while the light of a lantern thrown full in his face revealed the barrel of a petronel levelled at his head, and an authoritative voice commanded him in the King's name to surrender. [Book Two, "The Discovery," Chapter XII, "The 5th of November," p. 244]

Commentary

An entry in the Journal of the House of Commons held in the Parliamentary Archives notes

“This last Night the Upper House of Parliament was searched by Sir Tho. Knevett; and one Johnson, Servant to Mr.Thomas Percye, was there apprehended; who had placed Thirty-six Barrels of Gunpowder in the Vault under the House, with a Purpose to blow King, and the whole Company, when they should there assemble. Afterwards divers other Gentlemen were discovered to be of the Plot.” [Athol]

Although the actual sequence of events leading up to Fawkes's arrest is not quite as Ainsworth depicts it, and although Fawkes was apprehended in the Westminster undercroft rather than outside the conspirators' house nearby, Cruikshank's illustration signals his capture in a way that enabled Ainsworth to maximize suspense without telegraphing the fates of the other conspirators. The March 1841 steel engraving completes the accompanying text, for from Fawkes's perspective (as employed by the novelist here) the identities and even the numbers of those who have grabbed him are unclear. Cruikshank renders the scene dramatically by organizing it around the lantern shining on Fawkes's face, illuminated in chiaroscuro. Cruikshank describes the party as at least eight in number, several armed with halberds, implying that they are members of a military unit. In the left foreground the illustrator has positioned the owner of the "authoritative voice," Sir Thomas Knevet, while he has placed the confidential agent, Richard Topcliffe, obscurely in the background, just outside Fawkes's field of vision.

The illustration, which faced page 235 at the opening of the March number of Bentley's Miscellany, has nothing to with Book Two, Chapter XI, "The Marriage in the Forest," which leads off tkhe fifteenth monthly instalment; rather, Guy Fawkes arrested by Sir Thomas Knevet and Topcliffe illustrates the situation at the very conclusion (or "curtain") of this instalment, page 240, by which point the reader knows that the authorities have searched the undercroft and, having discovered the cache of gunpowder, have posted a guard on the evening of Monday, 4 November 1605. Thus, even before finishing the March instalment, the serial reader would have known that Fawkes would be arrested in the darkness of that evening, or during the early morning hours of 5 November, but would not learn the fate of the other conspirators until the April 1841 instalment. The serial reader would not have known the names of those (other than Knevet and Topcliffe, mentioned in the caption) who have apprehended Fawkes until the end of the instalment. The text just ahead of the arrest identifies Sir Thomas Knevet as a stalwart Westminster magistrate entrusted by King James with arresting whoever was responsible for planting the explosives; Ainsworth identifies the other principals in his party as Lord Mounteagle and Topcliffe.

In spite of Ainsworth's research into the Gunpowder Plot, he did not get all the facts right: Fawkes was not apprehended just outside St. Stephen's Hall. Rather, during the first search, the Earl of Suffolk's men had reported finding only "an unusually large amount of firewood" (Sharp). However, with Mounteagle's anonymous letter as a strong indication that something was afoot. According to the Jame’s Sharp’s “The Explosive Legacy of Guy Fawkes,”

Sir Thomas Knyvett, a minor but trustworthy royal official, oversaw a second search of the buildings around Parliament. The same storeroom likewise attracted his attention, as did the man Knyvett found guarding it. He was not dressed like a watchman; instead he was wearing a cloak, boots, and spurs — clothes more suited, it seemed, for making a quick getaway on horseback.

Knyvett’s men shifted the firewood and found 36 barrels of gunpowder hidden behind it. The man, who gave his name as John Johnson, was found to have “matches” (long fuses) on his person. Knyvett had uncovered an astonishing conspiracy to blow up the members of both Houses of Parliament, the king, most of the royal family, and leading officers of state. The aim was to set up a Roman Catholic regime in Protestant England, with James I’s daughter Elizabeth — who would not be in attendance — as its puppet ruler. [Sharp]

Cruikshank may have seen the 1823 historical canvas depicting the arrest of Fawkes in suitably epic terms, Discovery of Gunpowder Plot and the Taking of Guy Fawkes, by Henry Perronet Briggs. Here, however, the artist throws a dramatic light on the armour and rich clothing of the arresting magistrate, Sir Thomas Knevet, and relegates Fawkes and his men to the Rembrandtesque darkness. Trained as a lawyer, and having served as Member of Parliament for Westminster, Knevet had been promoted to the office of Keeper of Whitehall and Westminster Palaces earlier in 1605, and was therefore the official responsible for security of Parliament; his colleague, Edward Doubleday, would have been present in all likelihood in both the Briggs' painting and the Cruikshank illustration.

Ainsworth apparently inserted the notorious government agent, Richard Topcliffe, Queen Elizabeth I's chief enforcer of laws against Catholics, into the action, even though in reality he had died the year before. From the 1580s until 1595, he had hunted, captured, arrested, and interrogated many prisoners — often using torture to extract information — but he had died in November or December 1604 at the age of about 73, and therefore could not have infiltrated the Gunpowder Plot.

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 .]

Athol, William. ""Archive of the month: Sir Thomas Knyvet and the Gunpowder Plot". Online version available from Jesus College Cambridge. Web. 6 November 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2018.

Sharp, James. ""The Explosive Legacy of Guy Fawkes, the Man Behind the Mask". Online version available from National Geographic History Magazine. Web. 3 November 2017. Retrieved 25 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 26 August 2018