Episode 2 Gunpowder

Every papist in the kingdom is a potential traitor.

They must be watched and made to answer for their crimes.

What you propose, sir, is a recipe for rebellion.

On the contrary, my Lord Northumberland,

it is a recipe to avoid rebellion.

My sister was crushed like a seed...

BONES CRACK, SHE GROANS AND CROWD CHEERS

..my brother butchered like a hog.

HE GROANS

They will be revenged.

The sword plays no part in what we do.

Can His Majesty not see the danger the kingdom is in?

Flanders is where these dangerous spirits are gathered.

My name is Guy Fawkes.

FLESH SQUELCHES

Nothing to do with desperate men.

I am...a desperate man.

CHANTING IN LATIN

Gentlemen, His Excellency the Constable of Castile.

CHANTING CONTINUES

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

Your Excellency, I am Robert Catesby.

His Excellency knows who you are, Master Catesby. State your purpose.

My purpose is to kill the King of England.

In our country, as Catholics, we are hunted,

imprisoned, fined,

banished, tortured and hanged.

Kings are anointed of God.

James is a pretended king, and a tyrant.

God alone disposes of Kings, good or bad.

Help us, Excellency. Spain is our only hope.

How would you have Spain help you?

Send us soldiers.

Send us arms and horses that we may restore the true faith.

The treaty that is presently under negotiation between

His Catholic Majesty King Philip and King James of England

will see an end to your persecution.

Before any treaty is signed, we will be overpowered and uprooted.

We will be utterly destroyed.

I beg you, Excellency,

do not suffer this to happen.

CHANTING CONTINUES

We will consider your petition.

Sir, if you saw what I have seen,

you would not weep tears of pity and rage,

though your eyes would be pricked and red -

you would reach for your sword, as I reach for mine.

I have news of Catesby.

He was seen in the company of his cousin Wintour,

and also with Jack Wright.

Catesby, Wintour and Wright - that is a dangerous pack.

Where are they now?

Well, Wright has returned to Yorkshire,

but Catesby and Wintour have not been seen since.

Instruct the searchers at the ports to keep a lookout for

Catesby and his cousin.

Have them closely watched.

If they are trying to join Stanley's exiles in Brussels,

I want to know about it.

HORSE TROTTING

ANNE SPEAKS LATIN

HE SPEAKS LATIN

Very good.

SHE CONTINUES RECITING IN LATIN

Good day, madam.

What a splendid house.

I had not expected anything so beautiful.

Perhaps a little barren.

We have you to thank for our barrenness, sir.

What a wonderful inheritance.

I congratulate you on your great good fortune.

-Get you gone, sir...

-Elizabeth.

Toad.

DOOR OPENS

DOOR SLAMS

Good try.

BALL ROLLS

BOY LAUGHS

The boy's father is not at home.

Have you come all this way to put me to interrogation?

I ask not as the King's secretary, but as a neglectful father.

I have a son of my own, William,

but I am too much about the King's business

and so see little of my boy...

to my great regret.

You have it right, sir -

you are too much about the King's business.

I am merely the servant of the state.

I was apprenticed to this trade by my father.

It is a trade that deals in darkness.

Well, I cannot deny it.

Has your cousin Robert travelled out of the kingdom?

It seems you have come to interrogate.

Your cousin, it seems, is set on a very perilous course,

but he may still be turned back.

Help me to save him before it is too late.

Tell me where he is.

BALL ROLLS

I try to see the good in men, sir,

for that is the Lord's teaching and my poor understanding of it,

that we all have goodness in our hearts before evil and darkness.

But you, sir, you have racked and tortured,

you have hunted and struck down and led the condemned to the block

and to the stake.

Your trade has become your life, sir -

both are conducted in darkness.

BALL ROLLS

-BOY GROANS

-Almost.

HE SLURPS

That was truly delicious. May I trouble you for more?

BALL ROLLS

BOY GIGGLES

Ready my horse.

My Lord?

Ready my horse.

Yes, my lord.

When does your father return from Brussels?

My father is not in Brussels.

-DOOR CLOSES

-I think you are wrong, young man.

I know he is in Brussels.

No, sir. My father is in Spain.

That man is a devil.

HORSE SNORTS

FOOTSTEPS APPROACH

Catesby is in Spain.

The cubs go to suckle at their mother's teat.

PANTING

MAN GROANS

HE WHIMPERS AND COUGHS

MOANING

Why have you brought us here?

His Excellency the Constable directed me to bring you here

so that you might see with your own eyes...

MAN SCREAMS

..the pain Spain goes to to protect the true faith.

MAN SCREAMS

SHE SCREAMS

Who is she?

A Jew.

Those who do not confess die by fire.

Will Spain help us, yes or no?

Spain cannot support your design.

WOMAN WHIMPERS

Spain would have a Protestant king on the throne?

Spain would have a king who would negotiate.

20 years is a long time to be at war.

WOMAN SCREAMS

Have faith in Spain, gentlemen.

She will protect you,

as she protects, by these means, the faithful in her own land.

WOMAN SHRIEKS

FIRE ROARS

FIRE ROARS

HE TAKES A BREATH

No, we erred to come here.

Mm-hm.

Foreign princes will never provide the remedy we seek.

We must instead rouse our fellow Englishmen.

The remedy is close.

It is here, in our hearts...

Aye.

..just as it lives on in the hearts of the exiles in Flanders.

Come, we have work to do.

FOOTSTEPS CLICK

DOOR OPENS

"From Juan Fernandez de Velasco, Constable of Castile,

"to Charles de Ligne, presently residing in London."

The searchers at Dover intercepted it this morning.

Make haste, Master Alford.

Break the Constable's cipher,

and let us hear what the Spanish want for their treaty.

BELL TOLLS

HORSES TROTTING

BIRDS CLUCKING

This way. We are near.

Oh, no, no...

Who's this?

DISTANT DOG BARKS

This is not Stanley.

I said I would speak to Sir William Stanley and no other.

SHEEP BLEATS

Stanley is here.

CATESBY EXHALES

I see in the son the father I once knew.

Tom Wintour, my cousin.

A lawyer, I'm told.

Aye, though not versed in argument well enough to

turn our friends in Madrid to our purpose.

What is your purpose?

Well, speak freely.

Fawkes here is my trusted confederate.

We mean to lead the Catholics of England out of their oppression.

How? By what means?

If you help us raise an army for the rebellion,

all that I need can be found freely in London.

It is there in abundance.

Gunpowder.

Wintour, do you trust?

With my life.

You'll need more men for this venture.

There are others, equal to Wintour, known to me personally

by family and kin.

Then find them and swear them to your cause.

I will.

Fawkes is a man with excellent knowledge of engineering

and fortification.

I do not know what to make of him. The man says nothing.

Well, that's his great strength.

You will find him well fitted to your purpose.

If you say he is fitted, then I will have him.

It will not be easy, Robin.

Cecil's espials are everywhere.

They must not discover your design,

or that I am gathering men to invade England in your wake.

The sooner you strike, the more chance of success.

Then I am ready to return to England.

My Lord, we have deciphered the Spanish letter.

Thank you, Master Alford.

I am most grateful.

Most grateful.

They will in no ways be soothed out but rather disturbed,

and the end you achieve will be the opposite of that you intend.

Papists burst out of the dark corners of the land,

infecting the godly.

I know you have a misguided sympathy for their plight,

my Lord Northumberland, but we promised laws against them.

-We must now deliver on that promise or we will be utterly destroyed.

-No.

If we enforce these laws,

then the Spanish will break off their negotiation.

The negotiations must be brought to a good pass.

War has emptied the Treasury.

No, the kingdom demands peace.

I, the King, demand peace.

As Your Majesty knows, better than we do,

God demands true religion.

Fortunately, my lords, we can have both -

both peace and true religion.

Spain does not like these laws, nor their enforcement,

but she will sign the treaty nonetheless.

You cannot know this.

It is my business to know it, my lord.

Spain will put commerce and self-interest before any imagined

duty to the papists of England.

Then I shall have my laws against the Catholics as well...

HE COUGHS

..but you had best be right, my lord.

Have you read the King's proclamation?

"Let there be no doubt, I have never at any time entertained intention of

"tolerating their utterly abhorrent, wicked and detestable religion."

The King's own words.

The Parliament intends to make us capital enemies of the state.

We are dogs to be beaten, boars to be hunted.

We must pray that God pours his love and understanding

into the hearts of those in Parliament who are against us.

You...

You... You sit there in comfort,

secreted away from Cecil and his espials.

You-you-you read your books, you drink your wine,

you do not lack for meat,

but I say that you have forgotten that outside these walls

your flock suffers, Father Garnet.

Spain has vowed to protect us.

They will not allow these laws to pass.

I saw it when poor Father Smith was brought to his Calvary.

I saw it in your eyes then, and I see it now.

You are a coward.

I am not afraid to defend our faith with a strong arm.

Catesby has it right.

I will stand with him.

DOOR CLOSES

You are no coward.

But here I hide...

with a priest-hole fashioned for my own purposes

so that I may survive while others do not.

You are the flame around which the faithful gather.

That flame must be kept burning.

I do not have your steadfast heart, Anne.

Know you, too, that my heart is nothing like as steadfast

as you would believe.

You have a strong heart -

I know it.

It is sometimes strong, sometimes weak.

It beats as a woman's heart beats.

Your Majesty, Don Juan Fernandez de Velasco,

Duke of Frias and Constable of Castile.

Your Majesty.

By this present,

I'm authorised by His Catholic Majesty Philip III of Spain

and Portugal to negotiate the treaty between our two countries.

You are welcome, sir.

It is my earnest hope that our work may be speedily concluded.

Sir, His Catholic Majesty is grievously disturbed by laws

lately proposed in your Parliament for the suppression of the faithful.

The good and wholesome laws made in this kingdom are not

the concern of foreign princes.

My master is the protector of the Catholics of England.

If the threat be not removed within five days,

my orders are to return to Spain.

With your permission...

You all know me.

I am Robert Catesby. I am a loyal son of the one true church.

I will see her restored or I will die in the attempt.

I am Thomas Wintour....

..and I am willing to die for the one true faith.

I am Jack Wright. I pledge my life to this enterprise.

May God bless us.

I am Thomas Percy.

I will give everything I have, my fortune and my life,

to see the tyrant gone.

I've changed my name as often as I have my coat.

Lately I'm called John Johnson.

Will you swear, sir, as we have, each of us?

God knows I'm his servant.

He's heard 1,000 times...

all he needs to hear from me.

I have not heard it.

I make the same oath as you...

..and to the same end.

DOOR OPENS

You will all have heard of Father Gerard -

a more staunch defender of the faith you will not find.

He now stands with us.

Lord, govern and protect these men in their holy work.

We ask this in the name of our one and only Lord and saviour,

Jesus Christ. Amen.

-Amen.

-Amen.

-Amen.

No cause to question the veracity of my source...

You overreached yourself, my Lord Cecil.

You are distracting the King! HE THUMPS TABLE

I shall not choose between one course and the other.

I say I shall have both the good and necessary laws to

keep the Catholics in their place, and my treaty with Spain.

I was promised both, was I not?

Aye, I was promised as much, Master Secretary.

Your foolishness has tangled us up.

If you have not undone the knot by the time I open the Parliament,

I will find one who can.

Ah, the Constable -

he seeks to play me.

How could I be so deluded?

He intended his dispatch to be read.

To what purpose?

To the very purpose he has now achieved.

He has discredited me in the eyes of the King,

who now thinks he can do without me.

If I am removed, Spain will outwit our negotiators

and have terms all to their advantage.

Go you privately to the Constable.

If I were to be seen with the Constable,

our enemies would cry treason.

Then take pains to ensure you are unseen.

Tell the Constable I am desirous of having private conference with him

at his earliest convenience.

BIRDSONG

My master will not countenance that the laws against the papists

be put aside.

Then the treaty must fail.

I say it must not.

We both, Spain and England, you and I, have need of this treaty.

Do you have in mind some compensation, sir?

Your ships, when they venture into our waters,

are attacked and often destroyed.

We would allow your vessels not only free access to the Channel

but use of our seaports to refit, shelter and buy provisions.

Merchantmen?

And warships.

This is something Spain has proposed many times before.

We have always been refused.

This time, sir, I can ensure it is agreed.

However, in return for these articles,

Spain must renounce her claim to protect the Catholics of England.

I understand the King lately has occasion to be displeased with you,

My Lord.

How may I be certain of these articles?

The little game you devised, sir,

has indeed placed me in a difficult position,

but I know the King and will recover the trust

that you hoodwinked from him.

However, I shall have to bring him something.

What do you have in mind?

It will have to be generous.

RIVER FLOWING

Sweet Catherine...

I am near you.

HORSES TROTTING Very near.

HORSE SNORTS

He knows?

Aye.

Digby.

Catesby.

You will stand with us?

To the end.

HORSE SNORTS

How many men can you raise?

20 of my own household,

and another 50 working and living on my lands,

but they are loyal to the true church and will follow where I lead.

My brother Robert, he's promised us 30 men more.

Rookwood, Keyes and Grant say they can muster another 20 each.

Wright has sworn his brother Kit to our cause also.

On Tuesday next, the King, his councillors,

all the Commons and the Lords will be utterly obliterated.

Our army will march on Coombe Abbey.

We will seize the King's daughter, the Princess Elizabeth,

and we will place the child upon the throne.

Northumberland shall be lord protector.

Northumberland has joined us?

Percy is his kinsman and is confident that,

once we strike the blow,

Northumberland will take up his sword.

And where the Earl leads,

England's Catholics will rise up as one man.

We will sweep aside this heretic tyranny

and restore the England of happier times.

DOOR OPENS

BOY SNORES SOFTLY

How long have you slept in this bed?

I...

Since Christmas last.

Who told you you could sleep in here?

My grandmother, sir.

She had no right.

This is the bed in which your mother died.

I'm sorry, sir.

Please forgive me.

WHISPERING: Forgive...

Forgive...

Forgive me, Robert.

I have not been the man I should have been.

I have not been the father you deserve. I...

I have not known how.

For my absence,

for not binding myself to you with all my strength

or loving you with a heart as full and open as your own,

can you forgive me?

CATESBY TAKES A DEEP BREATH

You have so much of your mother in you.

She would have taught me how to hold you, how to protect you.

That is all I have ever wanted -

to see you safe and happy, to see you prosper.

All that I do...

and all that I am...

the good and the bad...

all is to that end.

Remember this in days to come.

Promise me.

I do promise, father.

HORSE WHINNIES

HORSE TROTTING

This chamber's very ill-favoured.

Ill-favoured indeed,

thus perfectly well fitted for those who gather here,

for they are a disorderly and unseemly lot,

the Parliament men,

and the things that they say about me,

no king anywhere has to suffer such disrespect.

If they should dare speak insolently of you,

I shall not be able to sit still.

Do not worry, Philip.

Here, on Tuesday, you will see how a king governs.

You will see the Parliament men, and the dukes,

and the earls and the lords lower their faces before me.

They bow to me.

There is clear passage to the river for transportation of goods?

Aye, by the Parliament stairs.

My servant, John Johnson...

I shall take it.

I'm afraid that's still not possible, sir. I've...

I've already agreed the lease of it.

Break it.

I shall pay £4 for the lease.

My husband's brother, he's a coal merchant

and has most urgent need of it...

I say, I shall take it, Mistress Wynyard,

on behalf of my patron, the Earl of Northumberland.

£4 for the lease,

and, to compensate your inconvenience...

another ten shillings.

LAUGHTER AND CHATTER

..with numerous reports from Kent of unlawful gatherings of papists.

HE KNOCKS AT DOOR

My Lord.

I have someone you will want to see.

They ascended the stairs to the private rooms.

They had their hats pulled low around their faces

but I recognised three of their number.

Who did you see?

My Lord, I did see Robert Catesby, Thomas Wintour and Jack Wright.

Did you hear anything of their conference?

Very little, sir.

They went to their room as soon as they entered.

They are still there?!

That's the last I saw.

I came straight to Sir William when...

But I was promised payment!

Pay him half rate.

Bring me Catesby, Sir William.

Northumberland.

Is he with us?

The Earl is a cautious man.

But I know my kinsman.

Once the deed is done, he will step forward to lead our cause.

And the powder?

We shall need £3,000.

4,000.

To be sure.

To be transported by tunnel?

That'll take too long.

Even with a dozen experienced miners.

With this company...

SNIGGERING

Percy,

Jack,

seek you out the gunpowder merchant.

You have all you need, Father?

I have laid my head on harder ground than this.

Tell him to be ready to master his tenants and servants.

DOOR OPENS

Seize them.

Ah!

No!

Ah!

Ah!

Run, Father, run!

Hi-ya!

Ah! Thomas, get him out of here!

Ah!

Ah!

Ya!

Oh!

Ah.

Argh!

Spread out and find him!

Oi!

Stop right there!

I do not fear you.

Dominus tecum. Benedicta tu in mulieribus,

et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Iesus.

Well, you will learn to fear me.

HE WHIMPERS

Yes.

BANGING

MUTTERS: ..impossible. Which one?

Strangers.

Quick, father. Hide.

WHISPERS: Anne!

Anne, are you there?

Anne!

Cousin. Cousin!

It's Robin.

Whatever your design, Robin, it is finished.

DOOR CREAKS

HE SIGHS

It is in no ways finished.

Join us.

You have authority with the faithful.

Lend it to us.

I will have no part in what you contrive.

And I will know nothing more of it.

I wish to confess.

You'll not deny me...

..the sacrament that is my right.

In the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

Amen.

Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.

What sins have you committed, my son?

I have plotted murder.

The murder of the King.

-I will hear no more.

-This is my confession.

The King.

His son, the Prince.

His wife, the Queen.

His councillors and his parliament,

I will blow them all to hell.

Enough!

I see pride in you.

Do you repent?

No.

Then there can be no absolution.

FLOORBOARD CREAKS

Anne, you cannot be here.

You must leave now.

Do you hate me so, Robin, that you would endanger me thus?

No.

Truly, I love you.

Stand with us.

I will not put my name to murder.

You damn him, cousin, with your secrets.

You damn us all.

We are already damned.

The time has come for us to act.

Cecil has been to your house, Robin.

He waits for you to stumble.

And when you do, he will take young Robert into his power,

and with your son, your house, your lands and all that you have.

You play into his hands like a silly, selfish child.

FOOTSTEPS RECEDE

His anger will bring a storm upon us all.

I fear...

..that when my time comes...

..I will not have the strength to endure as Father Daniel did.

Nothing is certain.

God alone knows our fate.

This is certain.

This end...

..it lies in wait for me.

BOATS SPLASH

Gerard is apprehended.

-What?

-They've taken him to the tower.

No.

Come.

SPLUTTERING

COUGHING

MUFFLED GROANING

-HE WAILS

-No! No!

-HE WAILS

-No!

You will break.

And speak.

All men do.

HE GROANS

Ave Maria, gratia plena,

Dominus tecum.

Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus...

-Your Romish prayers will not help you.

-..Iesus!

Your body is being drawn apart.

HE SCREAMS

Your hands reach for heaven so your feet are dragged to hell.

HE WHIMPERS

One word and it ends.

Where is Robert Catesby? Tell me where I may find him

and I will see you leave here a free man.

I...

I...

I live in God's grace and love.

And I'm already a free man.

HE WEEPS

HE RECITES PRAYER IN LATIN THROUGH TEARS

RACK TURNS, HE SCREAMS

RACK TURNS FASTER

BONE CRUNCHES

Where is Catesby?

How long before he may be questioned anew?

Within maybe two to three hours, my lord.

Two. Not three.

I depend upon you, Sir William.

HEAVY DOOR OPENS

Take him back to his cell.

Let him go.

Be back within the hour.

Do I know you?

You do not.

KNIVES UNSHEATHED

What has the priest told you?

Nought.

Come.

Eat.

HEAVY KEYS JANGLE

SOLDIER UNLOCKS DOOR

Eat.

KEYS JANGLE

LOCK TURNS

Open it.

Can you walk?

PRIEST STRUGGLES

CATESBY LOCKS DOOR

PRIEST YELLS IN PAIN

HE STRUGGLES

We have to get the river.

WATER LAPS GENTLY AGAINST BOAT

-Fetch the priest.

-My lord.

Get up!

The priest has fled!

The priest has fled!

HE BANGS ON METAL DRUM

APPROACHING VOICES SHOUT

The priest has escaped!

BELLS RING

The priest has escaped from the cells!

STABBING

No. Find them!

APPROACHING VOICES SHOUT

Down there, Father.

HE COUGHS

Come on, my men, come on.

BELLS RING

HE COUGHS

-WHISPERING SHOUT:

-Tom, Jack, over here!

Hurry, Robin.

Get in!