The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 | Page 3

for
censure or attack. This was the question of religion. On first taking the
house, Madame Bonaventure gave it out that she and the skipper were
Huguenots, descended from families who had suffered much
persecution during the time of the League, for staunch adherence to
their faith; and the statement was generally credited, though there were
some who professed to doubt it. Certain it was, our hostess did not
wear any cross, beads, or other outward symbol of Papacy. And though
this might count for little, it was never discovered that she attended
mass in secret. Her movements were watched, but without anything
coming to light that had reference to religious observances of any kind.
Those who tried to trace her, found that her visits were mostly paid to
Paris Garden, the Rose, and the Globe (where our immortal bard's plays
were then being performed), or some other place of amusement; and if
she did go on the river at times, it was merely upon a party of pleasure,
accompanied by gay gallants in velvet cloaks and silken doublets, and
by light-hearted dames like herself, and not by notorious plotters or
sour priests. Still, as many Bordeaux merchants frequented the house,
as well as traders from the Hanse towns, and other foreigners, it was
looked upon by the suspicious as a hotbed of Romish heresy and
treason. Moreover, these maligners affirmed that English recusants, as
well as seminary priests from abroad, had been harboured there, and
clandestinely spirited away from the pursuit of justice by the skipper;
but the charges were never substantiated, and could, therefore, only
proceed from envy and malice. Whatever Madame Bonaventure's
religious opinions might be, she kept her own council so well that no
one ever found them out.
But evil days were at hand. Hitherto, all had been smiling and
prosperous. The prospect now began to darken.
Within the last twelve months a strange and unlooked for interference
had taken place with our hostess's profits, which she had viewed, at
first, without much anxiety, because she did not clearly comprehend its
scope; but latterly, as its formidable character became revealed, it
began to fill her with uneasiness. The calamity, as she naturally enough
regarded it, arose in the following manner. The present was an age of

monopolies and patents, granted by a crown ever eager to obtain money
under any pretext, however unjustifiable and iniquitous, provided it
was plausibly coloured; and these vexatious privileges were purchased
by greedy and unscrupulous persons for the purpose of turning them
into instruments of extortion and wrong. Though various branches of
trade and industry groaned under the oppression inflicted upon them,
there were no means of redress. The patentees enjoyed perfect
immunity, grinding them down as they pleased, farming out whole
districts, and dividing the spoil. Their miserable victims dared scarcely
murmur; having ever the terrible court of Star-Chamber before them,
which their persecutors could command, and which punished
libellers--as they would be accounted, if they gave utterance to their
wrongs, and charged their oppressors with mis-doing,--with fine,
branding, and the pillory. Many were handled in this sort, and held up
in terrorem to the others. Hence it came to pass, that the Star-Chamber,
from the fearful nature of its machinery; its extraordinary powers; the
notorious corruption and venality of its officers; the peculiarity of its
practice, which always favoured the plaintiff; and the severity with
which it punished any libelling or slanderous words uttered against the
king's representative (as the patentees were considered), or any
conspiracy or false accusation brought against them; it came to pass,
we say, that this terrible court became as much dreaded in Protestant
England as the Inquisition in Catholic Spain. The punishments inflicted
by the Star-Chamber were, as we learn from a legal authority, and a
counsel in the court, "fine, imprisonment, loss of ears, or nailing to the
pillory, slitting the nose, branding the forehead, whipping of late days,
wearing of papers in public places, or any punishment but death." And
John Chamberlain, Esq., writing to Sir Dudley Carlton, about the same
period, observes, that "The world is now much terrified with the
Star-Chamber, there being not so little an offence against any
proclamation, but is liable and subject to the censure of that court. And
for proclamations and patents, they are become so ordinary that there is
no end; every day bringing forth some new project or other. As, within
these two days, here is one come forth for tobacco, wholly engrossed
by Sir Thomas Roe and his partners, which, if they can keep and
maintain against the general clamour, will be a great commodity;
unless, peradventure, indignation, rather than all other reasons, may

bring that filthy weed out of use." [What, would be the effect of such a
patent now-a-days? Would it,