Transcriber’s Note
A number of punctuation errors and apparent typos have been corrected, and are noted in detail in the Notes at the end of this text. The original versions of any corrections may be viewed as you read as mouseover text.
Execution of Guy FawkesGUY FAWKES
OR
THE GUNPOWDER TREASON
AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE
BY
WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH
With Illustrations on Steel by George Cruikshank
LONDON
GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited
BROADWAY HOUSE, LUDGATE HILL
LONDON AND COUNTY PRINTING WORKS,
BAZAAR BUILDINGS, LONDON, W.C.
TO MRS. HUGHES,
KINGSTON LISLE, BERKS.
My dear Mrs. Hughes,
You are aware that this Romance was brought to a close during my lastbrief visit at Kingston Lisle, when the time necessary to be devoted toit deprived me of the full enjoyment of your society, and, limiting myrange—no very irksome restriction,—to your own charming garden andgrounds, prevented me from accompanying you in your walks to yourfavourite and beautiful downs. This circumstance, which will suffice togive it some interest in your eyes by associating it with yourresidence, furnishes me with a plea, of which I gladly avail myself, ofinscribing it with your name, and of recording, at the same time, thehigh sense I entertain of your goodness and worth, the value I set uponyour friendship,—a friendship shared in common with some of the mostillustrious writers of our time,—and the gratitude I shall never ceaseto feel for attentions and kindnesses, little less than maternal, whichI have experienced at your hands.
In the hope that you may long continue to diffuse happiness round yourown circle, and contribute to the instruction and delight of the manyattached friends with whom you maintain so active and so interesting acorrespondence; and that you may live to see your grandsons fulfil theirpresent promise, and tread in the footsteps of their high-minded andexcellent-hearted father,—and of his father! I remain
Your affectionate and obliged friend,
W. Harrison Ainsworth.
Kensal Manor House, Harrow Road,
July 26, 1841.
PREFACE.
The tyrannical measures adopted against the Roman Catholics in the earlypart of the reign of Jame