Guido Fawkes: 401 Years On, Revenge Served Cold

If you don't enjoy gallows candour look away now.

This was a rather better week for one Guido Fawkes than enjoyed by his illustrious forebear. The illustration shows the closing stages of his long, ahem, drawn out execution.

After months of torture Fawkes tried to speed his own end by throwing himself violently off the gibbet in the hope of some neck snapping relief before they started cutting him up.

Plot foiled. Rope snapped. So poor Fawkes was more not less alive when they started cutting bits off him, burning them before his very eyes, pulling his guts out, and so on and so forth. Eventually they chopped his head off.

Presumably they are searching for his dark heart, and find alas that it had already gone to the one true heaven.