made all ready.' And the lord shall answer: 'Let them come
together.' And they shall let them come together, and shall
withdraw themselves; and if one fasten upon the other, and they
wrestle and fall, the guards shall go to the place and as near to
them as they can, in order to be able to hear in case one shall cry
for grace; and if one cry and they hear, they shall say to the
other, 'Cease; it is enough.' And then shall the lord cause the
conquered party to be taken to the gallows and hanged by the neck'
(a grace scarcely worth crying for), 'or his corpse, in case he had
been killed without crying for grace. The weapons of the vanquished
man and those which the victor threw away belong to the lord.
Should it appear in the course of the contest that one of the
parties had other weapons than those which had been seen by the
court, the guards shall seize him, and the lord shall pronounce
sentence upon him as a murderer.

'And if any one, who is no knight, is accused of murder, it shall
be done as above, only that the combatants shall be armed otherwise
than as knights.'

If the vanquished man did not fight for himself, but as a substitute,
his lot was subject to some variation; if he fought for a woman, then
not _he_, but the _woman_, was to be hanged; if he fought for a witness
who had been accused of perjury in a civil suit, then the champion was
to be hanged and the perjured man merely lost his right of testifying on
oath; in case of representing any of the principal parties in a criminal
process, a vanquished champion and the person whom he represented were
both to be hanged; and in case of representing a witness in a criminal
case, the _vanquished champion the witness, and the complainant were all
hanged_.

It is easily perceived that in such single combat the judgment of God
was not upon the main question, but upon the question which of the two
had committed perjury. So in case of the application of the single
combat in civil suits, which, however, could take place only when the
amount claimed was at least one mark.

Whoever prosecuted a claim must establish it by at least two witnesses;
and if he brought these, the defendant could not establish the contrary
by better witnesses or documents, but must either submit, or convict the
witnesses of perjury. This was done as follows: When the first witness,
kneeling, had taken the oat