The knight's name soon procured admission, but Lord Cobham's brother was kept for several minutes in the antechamber with the constables and Ida Mara. At first he expressed some haughty indignation; but, becoming calmer and more thoughtful by degrees, he turned to one of the constables, saying, "Hark ye, good fellow, there's a crown for you, tell some of the servants to have my horse shod, while I am kept waiting." The man took the crown readily enough, the sight of the well-filled purse from which it came making a considerable difference in his estimation of the prisoner's culpability. "The smith lives two miles off, sir," he answered; "at the corner of the high road; but they can run up with the beast in a minute." "Let them do so, let them do so," replied the gentleman; "it will save time, at all events." He then approached the side of the poor girl, and spoke a few words to her in a low tone. "No," she cried, aloud; "no, I will die first!" George Brooke bit his lip, murmuring, "You are an idiot;" and the moment after the whole party were summoned before the justice. He was a fat, good-humoured-looking man, who seemed to reckon his years by barrels of ale, but on whose brow sat a slight frown of habitual self-importance. Sir Harry West was seated beside him, with a clerk at the end of the table; and standing on his right hand was a tall, thin man, apparently about sixty years of age, of a very unprepossessing countenance. His white hair was thrust back from his forehead, which was narrow and low, but prominent over the eyes, which were shaded by bushy grey brows. The eyes themselves were keen and fiery; his lips were thin and in continual movement, even when he was not speaking; and his ears unnaturally large, with a gold ring in one of them, and a topaz in the other. His nose was aquiline, and depressed at the point, his complexion sallow, but his teeth brilliantly white and perfect, for a man of his age. He was dressed more richly than his condition warranted, and with a degree of extravagance in the colour and form of his habiliments which made their costliness the more remarkable. His ruff was of the finest lace, his coat of Genoa velvet; and his hands were covered with innumerable rings. "That is the girl," he cried, as soon as Ida Mara appeared; "that is the girl; and I claim her as my property." "Silence!" exclaimed worshipful Master Scully; "and let nobody speak till they are spoken to. What were you saying, Sir Harry?" "Merely that I thought it would be best," replied the knight, "to enter into the charge against Mr. Brooke in the first instance, as I understand that he is in haste." "I am in haste," rejoined George Brooke; "and as to a charge, there is none that I know of against me. Methinks I must have got into the kingdom of jackasses, to be thus brought by one fool before another, for no reason whatsoever but to gratify their mutual stupidity."