career could not have long continued without check
In an age less corrupt and venal than that under consideration, such a
career could not have long continued without check. But in the time of
James the First, from the neediness of the monarch himself, and the
rapacity of his minions and courtiers and their satellites,--each
striving to enrich himself, no matter how--a thousand abuses, both of
right and justice, were tolerated or connived at, crime stalking abroad
unpunished. The Star-Chamber itself served the king as, in a less
degree, it served Sir Giles Mompesson, and others of the same stamp, as
a means of increasing his revenue; half the fines mulcted from those who
incurred its censure or its punishments being awarded to the crown. Thus
nice inquiries were rarely made, unless a public example was needed,
when the wrongdoer was compelled to disgorge his plunder. But this was
never done till the pear was fully ripe. Sir Giles, however, had no
apprehensions of any such result in his case. Like a sly fox, or rather
like a crafty wolf, he was too confident in his own cunning and
resources to fear being caught in such a trap.
