Robert and Thomas Wintour the continent and again failed to elicit Spanish support, but instead met Guy Fawkes, with whom he returned to England. Robert, a devout Catholic who inherited Huddington Court near Worcester, joined the conspiracy the following year. The plot began to unravel following the delivery of an anonymous letter to William Parker, 4th Baron Monteagle, warning him to stay away from Parliament. Thomas and Catesby confronted Monteagle's brother-in-law, the recently recruited Francis Tresham, threatening to kill him, but Tresham managed to convince them of his innocence. At that stage Thomas reportedly asked Catesby to abandon the scheme, to no avail. When
Thomas Bates executed. Bates was charged with high treason, and tried at Westminster Hall on Monday 27 January 1606, alongside seven of his fellow conspirators. He arrived at the hall separately from the others; prisons operated on a class-based system and so he was kept at the Gatehouse Prison, rather than the Tower. Only Digby pleaded guilty. On the morning of 30 January 1606 therefore, Bates was tied to a wattled hurdle and dragged by horse along the street, from the Gatehouse Prison to the western end of St Paul's Churchyard. There he was present as first Digby, then Robert Wintour, and