Thomas Bates out of money. During a secret meeting at Bath in August, at which he, Percy and Thomas Wintour were present, the plotters decided that "the company being yet but few" he was to be allowed to "call in whom he thought best". Bates was uncomfortable with the idea, and was the only member of the conspiracy to object. He was over-ruled however, and Catesby soon enlisted Ambrose Rookwood, Francis Tresham and Everard Digby. The last details of the plot were finalised in October. Guy Fawkes would light the fuse and then escape across the Thames, while simultaneously a revolt in
Robert Keyes excuse his actions, claiming that "death was as good now as at any other time", preferable to living "in the midst of so much tyranny". The Jesuit Oswald Tesimond wrote in his "Narrative" of Keyes's defence: On 31 January 1606 Keyes, Rookwood, Thomas Wintour and Fawkes were taken to the Old Palace Yard in Westminster, to be hanged, drawn and quartered. Rookwood and Wintour were the first to ascend to the gallows. Grim-faced, Keyes went "stoutly" up the ladder, but with the halter around his neck he threw himself off, presumably hoping for a quick death. The halter broke, however,