But how were those who assisted him treated? On January 30th, Thomas Cornwallis, James Neale, Edward Parker and John Hampton, were impeached for having rescued him, and thereby of being accessories to high treason. Cornwallis made answer, "that he did well understand the matters charged ag^st the said Richard Ingle to be of no importance but suggested of mean malice of the ---- William hardige, as hath appeared since in that the grand enquest found not so much probability in the accusations, as that it was fitt to putt him to his triall" and "he supposed & understood no other but that the said rich. Ingle went aboard w^th the licence and consent of the L. G. & Counsell & of the officer in whose custody he was & as to the escape & rescuous in manner as is charged he is no way accessory to it & therefore prayeth to be dismissed."[24] The judgment was delayed, but Cornwallis was anxious to be at once discharged. The lieutenant general and the attorney general, therefore, having consulted together, found Cornwallis guilty, and fined him one thousand pounds of tobacco, though at the request of the accused the fine was respited until the last day of the month, when Brent ordered the sheriff "to levie 1000 lbs tob. on any goods or debts" of Capt. Tho. Cornwallis "for so much adjudged by way of fine unto the Lord Propriet^r ag^st him at the Court held on the 9^th ffeb last."[25] This fine, which was to be given to the attorney of Tho. Wyatt, commander of Kent Island, in payment of Lord Baltimore's debt to him, Cornwallis afterward acknowledged he had paid.[26] Neale did not make his appearance before the court, though he seems to have been in St. Mary's, and was suspended from the council for his contempt. On February 11th, being accused of having begged Ingle from the sheriff, he denied all the charges, and in a few days was restored to his seat in the council, upon the eve of Brent's departure for Kent Island.[27] Parker said Ingle had escaped against his will, and he was discharged, while Hampton escaped prosecution, presumably, for there is no further record of action in the case against him.[28] But it would have been bad policy for the authorities to allow the matter to drop without apparent effort on their part to punish somebody, and Cornwallis had to bear the brunt of their attacks. The feeling against him was so strong, according to his own statements, that besides paying a fine, the highest "that could by law be laid upon him," he was compelled for personal safety to take ship with Ingle for England, where the doughty captain testified before a parliamentary committee of Cornwallis' devotion to its cause, and of the losses he had sustained in its behalf.[29]