Star-Chamber delinquents cannot expect to be treated like
ordinary prisoners. If they do, they will be undeceived when brought
here--eh, Master Tunstall?"
"Most true, Sir Giles, most true!" replied the deputy-warden.
"Star-Chamber prisoners will get little indulgence from me, I warrant
them."
"Unless they bribe you well--eh, Master Joachim?" whispered Sir Giles,
merrily.
"Rest easy on that score, Sir Giles. I am incorruptible, unless you
allow it," rejoined the other, obsequiously.
"My poor father!" ejaculated Sir Jocelyn. "And thou wert condemned
without a crime to a death of lingering agony within this horrible cell!
The bare idea of it is madness. But Heaven, though its judgments be
slow, will yet avenge thee upon thy murderers!"
"Take heed what you say, prisoner," observed Grimbald, changing his
manner, and speaking with great harshness. "Every word you utter against
the decrees of the Star-Chamber, will be reported to the Council, and
will be brought up against you; so you had best be cautious. Tour father
was _not_ murdered. He was immured in this cell in pursuance of a
sentence of the High Court, and he died before his term of captivity had
expired, that is all."
"O, the days and nights of anguish and despair he must have endured
during that long captivity!" exclaimed Sir Jocelyn, before whose gaze a
vision of his dying father seemed to pass, filling him with unutterable
horror.
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