Digby is by November 4 ensconced with…
November 1605 CE
Digby is by November 4 ensconced with a "hunting party" at Dunchurch, ready to abduct Princess Elizabeth.
The same day, Percy visits the Earl of Northumberland—who is uninvolved in the conspiracy—to see if he can discern what rumors surround he letter to Monteagle.
Percy returns to London and assures Wintour, John Wright, and Robert Keyes that they have nothing to be concerned about, and returns to his lodgings on Gray's Inn Road.
Catesby, John Wright, and Bates set off that same evening for the Midlands.
Fawkes visits Keyes, and is given a pocket watch left by Percy, to time the fuse, and an hour later Rookwood receives several engraved swords from a local cutler.
Although two accounts of the number of searches and their timing exist, according to the King's version, the first search of the buildings in and around Parliament is made on Monday 4 November – as the plotters are busy making their final preparations – by Suffolk, Monteagle, and John Whynniard.
They find a large pile of firewood in the undercroft beneath the House of Lords, accompanied by what they presume to be a serving man (Fawkes), who tells them that the firewood belongs to his master, Thomas Percy.
They leave to report their findings, at which time Fawkes also leaves the building.
The King insistes that a more thorough search be undertaken.
Late that night, the search party, headed by Thomas Knyvet, returns to the undercroft.
Here they come across Fawkes once more, dressed in a cloak and hat, and wearing boots and spurs.
Fawkes is arrested, and gives his name as John Johnson, servant to Thomas Percy.
He is carrying a lantern (now held in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), and a search of his person reveals a pocket watch, matches, and touchwood.
The barrels of gunpowder are discovered hidden under piles of faggots and coal.