The Gunpowder Plot Read Online Free Page B

would tell them anything.
    They were sent to bed early.
    Hours later, in the dead of night, Eliza was woken by voices in the street outside. Then came the sound of tramping boots and the clink of metal.
    Soldiers!
she thought.
    She got up and opened the window.
    A group of soldiers was approaching – and they had a prisoner with them.
    â€œLucy!” she whispered.
    But Lucy was already awake and sliding out of bed. She leaned beside Eliza on the windowsill.
    â€œIt’s John Johnson,” she said.
    As the group came closer Eliza saw that she was right. Two of the soldiers held lanterns and their light fell on the face of John Johnson. The man did not struggle. But he must have heard the girls whispering, for suddenly he glanced up at the open window and saw them. Eliza jumped in fright and pulled Lucy down beside her, below the sill. Hidden there, they heard the soldiers move on.

    â€œ He will go to the Tower,” said Lucy.
    â€œYes.” It gave Eliza a strange feeling to think that their suspicions had led to a man being arrested and taken to prison.
    * * *
    In the morning a servant summoned Eliza and Lucy to appear before their parents.
    All three adults looked serious.
    Both girls curtseyed. Eliza felt small and frightened. Lucy’s hand crept into hers and she knew her cousin must be feeling the same.
    But no one was angry with them.
    â€œWe have been asked by the captain of the guard to thank you for reporting your suspicions of John Johnson,” Eliza’s father said. “I will tell you what happened because we don’t want you hearing rumours or listening to servants’ tittle-tattle. There was a midnight raid on the great cellar. The suspect was found there with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder – ”
    â€œ
Gunpowder!
” exclaimed Eliza and Lucy together.
    â€œThirty-six barrels of gunpowder, and a fuse.”
    Eliza and Lucy stared at each other. Those barrels! They’d never thought of gunpowder.
    â€œ He has been taken to the Tower for questioning,” Eliza’s father continued. “It is believed his plan was to blow up the House of Lords this very day when Parliament assembled and His Majesty King James, Queen Anne and Prince Henry and all the lords were there.”
    â€œSo – you too, Uncle. And my father,” said Lucy.
    She gazed at her father in such shock that he bent down and hugged her. “Both of us. And possibly all of you in this house as well, for there was a mighty quantity of powder.”
    â€œBut – why?” exclaimed Eliza.
    â€œMany Catholics are angry because His Majesty has not granted them the freedom of worship they hoped for,” said her father. “The authorities were alerted by letter a few days ago that a great blow would be struck at Westminster today. Now they will question the prisoner to find out who the other plotters are.”
    * * *
    Later that morning, Lucy sat writing busily in her notebook, while Eliza gazed out of the window and thought about what might have happened. She imagined the company assembling in the great hall above the cellar, the Lords robed in silks and furs, King James resplendent in his crown and cloth of gold, and with him Queen Anne and Prince Henry. The bishops would be there, and all the courtiers like her father, and the ushers and trumpeters and standard-bearers.
    If the gunpowder had ignited, they would all have been blown to pieces. Perhaps she and Lucy and her mother and all their household would have died too.
    Who would do such a thing?

   9   
    Mouser’s Secret
    â€˜
His name is Guy Fawkes, not John Johnson.
’ Lucy was reading aloud to Eliza from her notebook. ‘
He is a Catholic gentleman from Yorkshire and was a soldier in the service of the King of Spain. They are questioning him in the Tower.
’
    That means torture,
thought Eliza, with a shudder.
    â€˜
The plotters are on the run and trying to raise a rebellion in