"The services I have
rendered him must be set against any mischief I have subsequently done."

"You make me more than amends," said Sir Jocelyn, bowing to them, "and I
at once accept your proffered friendship."

"You are in the midst of friends and foes, Sir Jocelyn," said Prince
Charles, "and have before you a new-found relative; and not far distant
from you one, whom--unless I am greatly mistaken--has the strongest hold
upon your affections; but before you turn to her, or to any one, listen
to the sentence, which in the King's name I shall pronounce upon those
two offenders--a sentence which most assuredly will be ratified by his
Majesty in person, and by the Lords of the Council of the Star-Chamber,
before whom they will be brought. Hear me, then, ye wrong-doers. Ye
shall be despoiled of your unjustly-acquired possessions, which will be
escheated to the Crown. Where restitution is possible, it shall be
made."

"Restitution by the Crown!--a likely thing!" muttered Sir Giles.

"Moreover, ye shall pay for your misdeeds in person," pursued Charles.
"Degraded from the knighthood ye have dishonoured, and with all the
ceremonies of debasement, when ye have become Giles Mompesson and
Francis Mitchell, knaves, ye shall undergo precisely the same
ignominious punishment, with all its dreadful details, which ye caused
to be inflicted upon him you supposed to be Clement Lanyere. This being
done to you, and no part of the torture being on any plea omitted, ye
shall be brought back to the Fleet Prison, and be there incarcerated for
the residue of your lives."

Mompesson heard this sentence apparently unmoved, though his flashing
eye betrayed, in some degree, his secret emotion. Not so his partner.
Flinging himself on his knees before the Prince, he cried in piteous
tones--"I confess my manifold offences, and own that my sentence is
lenient in comparison with them. But I beseech your Highness to spare me
the mutilation and branding. All else I will patiently endure."

"He merits no compassion," said Buckingham, "and yet I would intercede
for him."

"And your intercession shall avail to the extent which he himself hath
mentioned--but no further," rejoined Charles.

"I solicit nothing--and I confess nothing," said Mompesson, in a tone of
defiance. "If I am ever brought to trial I shall know how to defend
myself. But I well know that will never be. I can make such revelations
concerning those in high places--ay, in the highes