This was the popular name of the building; the Court itself was known officially as "The Lords of the Council sitting in the Star Chamber." It was instituted in the reign of Henry VII (A.D. 1487), and the number of judges varied, from time to time, from twenty-six to forty-two; the Lord Chancellor, or the Lord Keeper, was the President. It took cognizance of perjury, riot, and conspiracy. The building was large, and richly decorated. The walls were panelled to the ceiling, great bow windows admitted light and air. The ceiling was ornamented with carved wood-work, and was richly painted. It was in this building, and before this august tribunal, that William Jefferay appeared, in the month of September, A.D. 1557, on the charge of riot and assault. -------------- A fortnight had passed since the warrant had been duly served by the Sheriff, and for the past three days William had been an inmate of the Fleet prison. The boys had rapidly regained their health, though William still carried his arm in a bandage, and the pallor of his handsome face showed the stress through which he had passed. As soon as the state of their health had permitted it, their uncle had revealed to them the dangerous position in which William stood. As Susan had surmised, "the brothers had no secrets," and Ralph's adventure in the Chiddingly woods was well known to William. But to both of them the news that William, and not Ralph, was deemed the culprit, was a matter of profound amazement, and, on Ralph's part, of intense indignation. "Oh, uncle," he cried, "this may not be! Mine was the folly, if folly it was, and on my head must fall the consequences, be they what they may!" An approving smile lit up Sir John's noble and dignified face as he replied— "I knew that would be your first thought, and you may yet have to pay the penalty of your wild freak—Heaven only knows! But in this mistake of identity lies, perhaps, the path of safety, and the Master of the Rolls agrees with me that it is our wisest course to let the matter proceed." With great reluctance Ralph consented, with the assurance of his uncle that if aught went amiss, and William was not acquitted, the whole truth should be told. -------------- Three days later the Sheriff appeared at Gray's Inn with much ceremony, and Ralph saw his brother carried off a prisoner to the Fleet. It was the first moment of real anguish in his young life, and but for the sweet influence of his sister, Ralph would have then proclaimed himself the offender and demanded the release of his brother. From the library window Ralph and Susan had seen the departure of William under the escort of the Sheriff's guard, and the boy's pale face was wrung with so intense an agony that Susan's fears were strongly aroused.