Sir Everard Digby and his fellow-prisoners reached Westminster about half-an-hour before the time fixed for the trial, and they were taken to the Star Chamber to await the arrival of their judges. The following is a contemporary account of their appearance and behaviour while there. [380] "It was strange to note their carriage, even in their very countenances: some hanging down the head, as if their hearts were full of doggedness, and others forcing a stern look, as if they would fear" ["that is _frighten_. _Footnote._"] "death with a frown, never seeming to pray, except it were by the dozen upon their beads, and taking tobacco, as if hanging were no trouble to them; saying nothing but in commendation of their conceited religion, craving mercy of neither God nor the king for their offences, and making their consciences, as it were, as wide as the world; and to the very gates of hell, to be the cause of their hellish courses, to make a work meritorious." [380] Somers' Tracts, Vol. xi. p. 113. This writer clearly did not go to the trial prepared to be pleased with the prisoners. If they looked down, they were "dogged" and ought to have been looking up; if they looked up, they were "forcing a stern look," and ought to have been looking down: if they were not praying, they should have been praying, and if they were praying, yea, even praying "by the dozen," they should have not have been praying; if they smoked, it was because they did not mind being hanged; if they talked of nothing but religion, it was because they did not desire God's mercy, and one thing was certain--that their prayers and their religion and all things about them, to their very consciences, were "hellish." Sir John Harrington was another unadmiring spectator. [381] "I have seen some of the chief" [conspirators], he says, "and think they bear an evil mark in their foreheads, for more terrible countenances never were looked upon." [381] _Nugae Antiquae_, Vol. i. p. 373. Another writer takes a different view, at any rate in the case of Sir Everard Digby. As that prisoner was being brought up for trial, says Father Gerard,[382] "(not in the best case to make show of himself as you may imagine), yet some of the chiefest in the Court seeing him out of a window brought in that manner, lamented him much, and said he was the goodliest man in the whole Court." [382] _Narrative of the G. P._, p. 88. On entering Westminster Hall, the prisoners were made to ascend a scaffold placed in front of the judges. The Queen and the Prince were seated in a concealed chamber from which they could see, but could not be seen; and it was reported that the King also was somewhere present.[383] The crowd was enormous. Although a special part of the hall had been assigned to members of parliament who might wish to attend the trial, they were so[384] "pestered with others not of the House," that one member complained, and a committee was afterwards appointed to enquire into the matter.