The gunpowder under Parliament

London, autumn 1605. Thirteen Catholic gentlemen, led by Robert Catesby, have packed thirty-six barrels of gunpowder into a rented undercroft directly beneath the House of Lords. At the state opening on 5 November, King James, his heir Prince Henry, the Lords, the bishops and the judges will all be in one room above it. The plan's weak seam is mercy: some plotters have Catholic friends in that room. On 26 October an anonymous letter reaches Lord Monteagle at supper, warning him to devise some excuse to be absent, for they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament. Monteagle carries it to the king's minister, Robert Cecil. On the night of 4 November, searchers find a tall man in the undercroft with a lantern, matches, and a false name.

In the timeline recorded here, the letter meets the fire instead of the minister. Monteagle reads it once at table, and hears in it either a trap for him or a test of him. He decides that a Catholic lord survives this reign by having seen nothing. The paper curls on the hearth while his supper cools. There is no ride to Whitehall, no search of the cellars, no tall man taken at midnight. On the morning of 5 November the king comes to Westminster by barge, and the Lords fill their chamber. Beneath their feet, in the dark among the firewood, a lantern is lit by a soldier who has waited all night and does not wait anymore.