Guy Fawkes, 'the devil in the vault', arrested in the nick of time as he stands poised to blow up the entire leadership of Jacobean England-one of the most vivid images in English history, familiar from countless illustrations and tableaux. And even now, 350 years later, we still burn Guy Fawkes in effigy every year. But who was this obscure soldier-of-fortune and what drove him to such a step? Are Catholic historians right to claim that the whole Gunpowder Plot was a charade staged by the government of the day to discredit the Catholics?