Can you solve it? Gunpowder, reason and plot

A puzzling episode from the early seventeenth century

UPDATE: To read the solution click here

Hi guzzlers,

Today's puzzle concerns the Gunpowder Plot, in which Guy Fawkes and pals attempted to burn down the Houses of Parliament on this day in 1605. In an incident as yet unreported by historians, six men were rounded up by the authorities on suspicion of being traitors.