e
nature of this trial is more than usually obscure, and there is some
reason for doubting whether Blackstone's account is accurate. He states
that the accused person was blindfolded and that the ploughshares were
placed at irregular intervals--evidently with the design that the person
might escape contact with some of the irons: possibly all. Blackstone's
authority, Rudborn, in his story of the trial of Queen Emma, conveys a
totally different impression of the proceedings--at any rate, on that
occasion. He says distinctly that she was _not_ blindfolded, and that
she pressed each ploughshare with the whole weight of her body: "Emma
vero nullam mamphoram sive pannum ante oculos habens--super novem
vomeres novem passus faciens et singulos eorum totius corporis pleno
pressens pondere."

On such occasions the following collect was in use: "Lord God Omnipotent
... we invoke Thee, and, as suppliants, exhort Thy majesty, that in this
judgment and test Thou wilt order to be of no avail all the wiles of
diabolical fraud and ingenuity, the incantations either of men or of
women; also the properties of herbs; so that to all those standing
around, it may be apparent that Thou art just and lovest justice, and
that there is none who may resist Thy majesty. And so, O Lord, Ruler of
the heavens and the earth, Creator of the waters, King of Thy whole
creation, in Thy holy name and strength, we bless these ploughshares,
that they may render a true judgment; so that, if it be so that that
man is innocent of the charge in this matter which we are discussing and
treating of amongst us, who walks over them with naked feet; Thou, O
omnipotent God, as Thou didst deliver the three youths from the fiery
furnace, and Susanna from the false charge, and Daniel from the den of
lions--so that Thou mayest see fit, by Thy potent strength, to preserve
the feet of the innocent safe and uninjured. If, moreover, that man be
guilty in the aforesaid matter; and, the Devil persuading, shall have
dared to tempt Thy power, and shall walk over them; do Thou, who art
just and a Judge, make a manifest burn to appear on his feet, to Thy
honour and praise and glory; to the constancy and confidence in Thy
name, moreover, of us Thy servants; to the confusion and repentance of
their sins of the perfidious and blind; so that, against their will,
they may perceive, what willingly they would not--that Thou, living and
reigning from ages to ages, art the judge of the livin