Brief little blog entry on something I found amusing.

Robert Catesby was the ringleader of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, for which the slightly more famous Guy Fawkes is known. On his Wikipedia article is the following:

Following the discovery of the plot, Catesby and the other conspirators
fled to the Midlands. He died three days after the discovery of the plot at
Holbeach House near Kingswinford in Staffordshire during a shoot-out with
officers sent to arrest him.

What I find funny is the idea of a "shootout" in 1605. Everyone gets out their matchlock or wheel-lock muskets and arquebuses, and goes to it. A quick series of bangs, and then while the smoke clears everyone gets out their powder horns, and starts reloading their weapons...which is not a simple or a quick process. "Hang on a minute, officers, I've misplaced my ramrod...anyone got a spare?"