Thus far, every thing had prospered with the conspirators; success had
followed every effort they had made.

On Thursday evening, the 24th of October, eleven days before the intended
meeting of Parliament, an anonymous letter was put into the hands of the
servant of Lord Monteagle, warning his Lordship not to attend the
Parliament that season, for that God and man had concurred to punish the
wickedness of the times. It is a most extraordinary fact, that the
conspirators knew of the delivery of this letter to the Lord Monteagle, and
that it was in the possession of the Earl of Salisbury, Secretary of State,
for eight days before the disclosure took place, as developed in Thomas
Wintour's confession, taken before the Lord's Commissioners on the 23rd of
November, 1605; yet so strong was their infatuation, and so desperately had
they set their fortunes on the event, that they unanimously resolved "to
abyde the uttermost tryall."

The generally received opinion has been, that it was to the sagacity and
penetration of King James that the detection of the conspiracy must be
ascribed, and that it was his Majesty who first suggested the agency of
gunpowder: but the Earl of Salisbury, in a letter to Sir Charles
Cornwallis, ambassador at Madrid, asserts, that in a conversation between
the Earl of Suffolk (Lord Chamberlain) and himself, on perusal of the
anonymous letter, the employment of gunpowder first occurred to them, and
that the King subsequently concurred in _their_ opinion. The letter, after
having been communicated to several of the Privy Council, was shewn to the
King three or four days before the opening of Parliament, who, with great
prudence, gave orders that no notice whatever should be taken of it, but
that every thing should go on as usual, until the very day appointed. On
Saturday, the Lord Chamberlain, according to the customary forms of his
office previous to the meeting of every Parliament, viewed every room and