Remember, remember (conclusion)

The gunpowder is there (some of it had decayed but was replaced), and Guy Fawkes is there ready to light it, so why didn't it work?  Well one Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter advising him not to attend the opening of parliament because "God and man hath concurred to punish the wickedness of this time" and "they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament".  Monteagle passed the letter on to Robert Cecil - the King's spymaster, who had already heared rumours of a plot.  As a result the buildings around parliament were searched and Fawkes and the gunpowder discovered, But the idea that he was discovered match in hand as it were is false. When he was found he first spun the soldiers some sort of yarn and they went away for further instructions. At this point it seems Fawkes could have made his escape, but stayed at his post and was eventually arrested when a search party returned. The rest as they say is history, except a little known fact is that when Fawkes was taken to the gallows to be hanged drawn and quartered, he threw himself headlong off the scaffold and the fall broke his neck thus saving himself the agony which he would have had to endure.  It was never discovered who wrote the "Monteagle letter" and modern thought is that it was probably written by Cecil himself to justify investigating people who he was already suspicious of being Catholic conspirators. To this day the cellars under the Houses of Parliament are ceremonially searched before the State Opening.