responsible for his conduct in half this sum. Of the fine of £10, which they exacted from him, half was in course of time to be given back, if his submissive temper showed signs of lasting. It might well be thought he would not again question the high ways of the corporation, for by so doing he might involve his friends in ruin.[419] For twelve years there is no record that Saunders ever troubled the peace of men in high places. During this interval death removed his great enemy, the old recorder; and royal favour--for Henry VII. was ever prudent in such matters--gained the vacant post for Richard Empson. In 1484, three years before his death, Boteler was overtaken by a great disgrace. He magnified his own office at the mayor's expense;[420] and, as a punishment, the Forty-eight--with Laurence for the first time on record sitting among the number--decreed that on all public occasions he should not immediately follow the mayor, but should give precedence to the master of the Trinity guild.[421] It may be that this blow broke the old man's proud spirit. He became "of so gret febulness" that the men of the city, fearing that "any casualte of disease by God's visitation [might] come unto him," began to take into consideration the claims of possible recorders. Boteler, however, kept the post until his death, when the King, hearing how "it had pleased our blessed Creatur to calle late from this vncertain and transorite lif unto his great and inestimable mercy"[422] the old recorder, wrote to inquire concerning the candidates for the vacant post.