“Entirely lost the use of ’em,” replied the jailer.  “But what of that?  He didn’t require to take exercise.  A friend was permitted to visit him, and that was more grace than the Council usually allows to such offenders.”

“It was far more than an offender like Sir Ferdinando deserved,” said Sir Giles; “and, if I had known it, he should have had no such indulgence.  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.

“Days and nights which will henceforth be your own,” roared Sir Giles; “and you will then comprehend the nature of your father’s feelings.  But he escaped what you will not escape—­exposure on the pillory, branding on the cheek, loss of ears, slitting of the nose, and it may be, scourging.  The goodly appearance you have inherited from your sire will not be long left when the tormentor takes you in hand.  Ha! ha!”

“One censured by the Star-Chamber must wear a paper on his breast at the pillory.  You must not forget that mark of infamy, Sir Giles,” said the deputy-warden, chuckling.

“No, no; I forget it not,” laughed the extortioner.  “How ingeniously devised are our Star-Chamber punishments, Master Joachim, and how well they meet the offences.  Infamous libellers and slanderers of the State, like Sir Jocelyn, are ever punished in one way; but new crimes require new manner of punishment.  You recollect the case of Traske, who practised Judaism, and forbade the use of swine’s flesh, and who was sentenced to be fed upon nothing but pork during his confinement.”